On the territory of Mari El Republic there are two species of hare: white and grey. These kinds are quite different according to themselves their places of residing, the style of life and the number of biological features.

A white hare is a forest inhabitant, it lives in various forests, however, preferring, those, where there are cutting, which are overgrown (in summer) with thick and high grass in summer, marsh with sedge, fir forest but mainly young aspen tree forest, the bark of which it eats willingly in autumn and winter.

A grey hare lives in the open places (fields, water meadows) absolutely avoiding deep forest and entering sometimes copses and fruit gardens.

A white hare fully justifies its name by the winter: it becomes absolutely white to the colour of snow only the ends of ears keeping the unfaded black edge.

A grey hare even in winter stays silvery - grey a bit yellowish on its breast and belly. Along his back there is a beautiful "girdle" in dark, amber and pink specks.

And the feeding of these hares is different too.

A white hare eats grass, sedge, tree leafs, the twigs bilberry and sometimes mushroom - the deer truffles in sommer, and in winter it is content with tree bark.

A grey hare eats meadow grasss and cereal grass in summer and in winter - winter crops digging them up in the snow, the rests of the vegetables in the gardens, hay on the threshing-floors and so on.

The paws of a white hare and a grey hare in shape are also noticiablly different.

A paws of a white hare is wider in fingers, and its trace on the snow reminds a small bowl; having the wider paw a white hare gets stuck less and moves easier on the deepest and friable snow.

The skilled hunters the distance distinguish a white hare from a grey hare judging by the manner of the motion. A grey hare is always higher on the legs, goes with higher raised head, seems always longer and more stretched than a white hare, and the manner of moving lets to say that he is "jumping". A white hare is lower on the move. It looks like it presses itself to the land and makes an impression of the shorter hare, and its manner of moving is corresponded more to expression "is spreading".

One of the most essential difference between a white hare and a grey hare is also a tail (flower). The grey hare`s tail is narrower and longer, from the upside it has sharply lined strip, which is the same in summer and in winter. A white hare doesn`t have such a strip.

The hares of all the breeds are extremely fertile, a period of pregnancy of a she-hare is about 50 days, she-hare give birth to twice or even 3 times a summer (from 3 to 5 hares each time).

The hares are surrounded by the enemies from all the sides, they are permanently hunted by a wolf and a lynx, a fox and a hawk, an eagle-owl and an owl. The main defense of a hare from its enemies is its durable and fast legs. Never the legs the widespread opinion about hare`s extreme cowardice is exaggerated and is not exact (because almost every beast which is raised by the dogs run away, a lynx, for example, is panically saving itself by running away from a union of the hounds).

Trace hare The hunting with hounds