Gallery - Lagomorphs

Lagomorphs

Ground living or burrowing animals with enlarged hind legs. Dentition highly specialised for grazing,permanently growing incisors like rodents but with two upper incisors, diastema, no canines and high crowned cheek teeth. Chewing is transverse unlike rodents.

Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)

Originally open stepps, today mainly on cultivated treeless open fields, also found in swampy areas and in mountains up to 1500m

Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus)

The Usual summer coat of the Mountain Hare is brown, this changes during the winter to pure white. The precise timing of this change depends on the temprature. In the high north, Mountain Hares are white throughout the year, but in Ireland and Faroe Islands they remain brown even in the winter. In some parts of Scotland and Scandinavia the autumn colour change is incomplete and the animals have a mottled pattern through the winter.

Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Rabbits are sociable creatures,living in large family groups with a dominance hierarchy. This is reinforced by ritualised fights. Pregnant females dig out special nesting burrows which they line with grass and fur. Unlike Hares baby rabbits are naked and helpless.

Rabbit Signs

Here are some pictures to help ID Rabbits.

© Simon Thurgood 2024
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