Hare Evolution.....

[Leeview 791]

I think hares can evolve in a few generations, we used to run the fens twice or sometimes three times a week. Some places, every man and his dog knew about, Sunday mornings were like the Waterloo cup ! Now these hares were very hard to catch, only the best survived to pass on their genes to the next generation. From time to time we would stumble on places that others knew nothing about, this was obvious by the fact that the dogs would wipe the floor with the hares, simply because the weaker ones had not been weeded out, they lived to pass on their inferior genes. As a side note, the best hares, the ones hardest to catch, were never the biggest. They also learn quickly, I've seen hares go to ground only after being very hard pressed, run straight to ground in the same hole the next time they're coursed.

Romany you "think hares can evolve in a few generations" how long would you make a generation to a Hare? I have a report on a scientific study of the British brown Hare done by Surrey University.

Open question to anyone: what would you think the life expectancy is of a brown Hare on average?

Y.I.S Leeview

[DottyDoo 500]

5 years if they lucky????

 

just a guess

[feed the bear 13]

I think hares can evolve in a few generations, we used to run the fens twice or sometimes three times a week. Some places, every man and his dog knew about, Sunday mornings were like the Waterloo cup ! Now these hares were very hard to catch, only the best survived to pass on their genes to the next generation. From time to time we would stumble on places that others knew nothing about, this was obvious by the fact that the dogs would wipe the floor with the hares, simply because the weaker ones had not been weeded out, they lived to pass on their inferior genes. As a side note, the best hares, the ones hardest to catch, were never the biggest. They also learn quickly, I've seen hares go to ground only after being very hard pressed, run straight to ground in the same hole the next time they're coursed.

Romany you "think hares can evolve in a few generations" how long would you make a generation to a Hare? I have a report on a scientific study of the British brown Hare done by Surrey University.

Open question to anyone: what would you think the life expectancy is of a brown Hare on average?

Y.I.S Leeview

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm I'd hazard a guess of 3 years.

[romany52 313]

I think hares can evolve in a few generations, we used to run the fens twice or sometimes three times a week. Some places, every man and his dog knew about, Sunday mornings were like the Waterloo cup ! Now these hares were very hard to catch, only the best survived to pass on their genes to the next generation. From time to time we would stumble on places that others knew nothing about, this was obvious by the fact that the dogs would wipe the floor with the hares, simply because the weaker ones had not been weeded out, they lived to pass on their inferior genes. As a side note, the best hares, the ones hardest to catch, were never the biggest. They also learn quickly, I've seen hares go to ground only after being very hard pressed, run straight to ground in the same hole the next time they're coursed.

Romany you "think hares can evolve in a few generations" how long would you make a generation to a Hare? I have a report on a scientific study of the British brown Hare done by Surrey University.

Open question to anyone: what would you think the life expectancy is of a brown Hare on average?

Y.I.S Leeview

2 to 3 years, I would have thought,but when the pressure is sudden and intense, and the consequences are fatal, such as the upsurge in coursing with saluki bred dogs over the last 25 years or so, the evolution takes on the speed that can be achieved in captivity with selective breeding, which is, in it's self only man induced evolution.

[berty1 8]

Average life expectancy for a hare I guess would be 2yrs.

[hunt and fish 35]

My new we whippit coursed its first hair today..the hare ran into a bog full of trees in which i ran in after to see what was happening..came out up to my knees in water haha.

[Casso 1,261]

In evolutionary terms , the hares that sits and waits will be coursed and maybe caught, whereas the timid , nervous hare will f**k off as soon as it hears or feels something is just not right, weak or strong wont come into it,,

[Leeview 791]

Less than 4% of Hares live to be 2years old according to the report, which I found quite amazing I'll get some more details up tomorrow its quite revealing

Y.I.S Leeview

[feed the bear 13]

Less than 4% of Hares live to be 2years old according to the report, which I found quite amazing I'll get some more details up tomorrow its quite revealing

Y.I.S Leeview

 

Must be the 96% I come across........

[feed the bear 13]

It seems that from what has been posted on here that when an area is hunted to the extremes like the fens were, the hare will adapt. I wonder if that level of hunting would have changed the way the hare lived. Someone mentioned how he saw hares which were hunted often going straight to ground like a rabbit on sight of the dog. Now, if these hares bred and the leverets learned this behaviour and passed it on...... wonder where it would have all ended....

[bolio 49]

I think if a hare survives a fright by soughing once then it's more likely to try the same ruse again the next time it's under pressure. But that doesn't mean the trait will be inherited by the offspring. You can bring a newborn baby from French parents to be raised in England by English foster parents, but it won't grow up speaking French.

[Guest Buttermilk]

This is such a good thread....I know very little about coursing in general, nor the brown hare ....and this thread is both informative and incredibly interesting.

I did a thesis two years ago on 'The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection', this would have been much appreciated then! Thanks....

[feed the bear 13]

This is such a good thread....I know very little about coursing in general, nor the brown hare ....and this thread is both informative and incredibly interesting.

I did a thesis two years ago on 'The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection', this would have been much appreciated then! Thanks....

If you've done a thesis on evolution, what do you think would happen if the hare continued to get hunted by dogs with greater stamina than them? Do you think it would adapt by going to ground etc and how long do you think it would take to become second nature.... Or, would nothing happen and it would simply die out....

[feed the bear 13]

I think if a hare survives a fright by soughing once then it's more likely to try the same ruse again the next time it's under pressure. But that doesn't mean the trait will be inherited by the offspring. You can bring a newborn baby from French parents to be raised in England by English foster parents, but it won't grow up speaking French.

 

but what if it changes and gives birth under ground instead of in a form?

[Guest Buttermilk]

This is such a good thread....I know very little about coursing in general, nor the brown hare ....and this thread is both informative and incredibly interesting.

I did a thesis two years ago on 'The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection', this would have been much appreciated then! Thanks....

If you've done a thesis on evolution, what do you think would happen if the hare continued to get hunted by dogs with greater stamina than them? Do you think it would adapt by going to ground etc and how long do you think it would take to become second nature.... Or, would nothing happen and it would simply die out....

 

I think the hare would adapt.

Hares being continually hunted by dogs with greater stamina than them would result in natural selection decreeing that only a small percentage of the hares from each generation would survive and reproduce. Heritable changes, passed on through reproduction, would eventually mean that traits that aid survival would become more and more common, resulting in a hare that had aquired these traits over generations...be it going to ground, giving birth under ground or simply being able to out-run the dogs.