Watch out for hares during breeding season

THE spectacle of a hare bounding along a hillside always lifts the spirits. Be on the lookout, for this is a time of a year when you see these normally quiet- living creatures performing dramatic acts. 

The term, ‘mad as a march hare’, has its origins in a breeding ritual whereby males gather and sometimes fight each other, boxing with their fore paws and kicking with the hind ones. The breeding season can run from January to August, but is at its most intense in spring.

Over the years, there’s been a lot of well-publicised controversy about hare coursing and greyhounds must be muzzled. There’s also a very old rural tradition of open coursing, with people heading off with a few greyhounds hoping to ‘rise’ a hare. In days long ago, we remember such adventures on Sunday afternoons and, invariably, the hare would easily outsmart the dogs, disappearing to safe cover in the bogs.