The Evolution Of The Hare

[MOO 730]

I am over in the far east at the moment and find myself with a lot of free time on my hands and have been watching some coursing dvds ..

it got me thinking that animals evolve over many thousands of years with many factors like food ,landscape,terrain ,temprature ,quarry specious they hunt or what specious hunt them etc etc these factors play a part in anythings evolution ...so after seeing hares run for sometimes over 4 minutes nearly bring some dogs to a stand still ...what made lepus europaeus into the ultimate athlete it is ....as for it to evolve the way it did there must of been some other specious that preyed on it pushing it hard in the chase with only the strongest and best surviveing .and giveing us what we call the modern day hare .

after watching many dvds ...that moyes captain made it look effortless and easy

[lat 29]

Interesting.

I agree about Captain he looked some dog. Does anybody no if he sired any decent stuff.

[TOMO 26,638]

WELL he sired splodge,, who wone the forly in 2004, and some other comps,,, i have a bitch out of captin,, but no where near as good as her sire,, or splodge

[TOMO 26,638]

i think dogs/wolves made the hare the animal it is today,,, there are many species of hare around the world,, and lots of sub species,,,, and on most contents there are hares,,there are wild dogs or wolfs,,, from african dogs to europian wolves,,, and right up to the artic species of huge wolves ......... most of these wild dog speices have one thing in common,,,, huge staminar

[bigliks 601]

Captain use be my dads as a pup he called it captain after the breeder and good pal willy tuff rip the mother of captain was another good bitch called spindles also bred by willy of prob 1 of the best bitches of all time the great sooner the DVD you seen my dad prob filmed it if kipper or jacko was on it another good dog of captain was snatch and there suppose be some good stuff of him in Ireland atb bigliks

[Simoman 110]

Interesting question, why didn't hares evole into ground dwelling species to avoid predators rather than developing such tremendous athletic ability?

[IanB 0]

i think dogs/wolves made the hare the animal it is today,,, there are many species of hare around the world,, and lots of sub species,,,, and on most contents there are hares,,there are wild dogs or wolfs,,, from african dogs to europian wolves,,, and right up to the artic species of huge wolves ......... most of these wild dog speices have one thing in common,,,, huge staminar

 

Tomo, wolves are apex predators they hunt in packs, they go for the big boys, i.e ungulates animals with hooves...bison,deer,etc,etc

I cannot see them wasting energy on a few mouthfuls to feed the pack, for so little return..So disagree with that theory..

 

I think its more to do with the land and terrain they originated in...open plains, grasslands, reduced cover the brown hare was supposedly introduced just like the rabbit, the mountain hare is our true native hare..

[Born Hunter 17,798]

i think dogs/wolves made the hare the animal it is today,,, there are many species of hare around the world,, and lots of sub species,,,, and on most contents there are hares,,there are wild dogs or wolfs,,, from african dogs to europian wolves,,, and right up to the artic species of huge wolves ......... most of these wild dog speices have one thing in common,,,, huge staminar

 

Tomo, wolves are apex predators they hunt in packs, they go for the big boys, i.e ungulates animals with hooves...bison,deer,etc,etc

I cannot see them wasting energy on a few mouthfuls to feed the pack, for so little return..So disagree with that theory..

 

I think its more to do with the land and terrain they originated in...open plains, grasslands, reduced cover the brown hare was supposedly introduced just like the rabbit, the mountain hare is our true native hare..

 

I believe Arctic wolves will hunt hares in a manor similar to modern coursing, hunting the hares by sight and running them down with their superior endurance. I'll try and find a video clip.

[IanB 0]

i think dogs/wolves made the hare the animal it is today,,, there are many species of hare around the world,, and lots of sub species,,,, and on most contents there are hares,,there are wild dogs or wolfs,,, from african dogs to europian wolves,,, and right up to the artic species of huge wolves ......... most of these wild dog speices have one thing in common,,,, huge staminar

 

Tomo, wolves are apex predators they hunt in packs, they go for the big boys, i.e ungulates animals with hooves...bison,deer,etc,etc

I cannot see them wasting energy on a few mouthfuls to feed the pack, for so little return..So disagree with that theory..

 

I think its more to do with the land and terrain they originated in...open plains, grasslands, reduced cover the brown hare was supposedly introduced just like the rabbit, the mountain hare is our true native hare..

 

I believe Arctic wolves will hunt hares in a manor similar to modern coursing, hunting the hares by sight and running them down with their superior endurance. I'll try and find a video clip.

 

I'm basing the makeup of a hare on its surroundings and predators.. I think wolves have had very little affect on the evolution of the hare

[TOMO 26,638]

i didnt say i was right its just a theory,, but do hares have other prditors that predate on them ?? yeh foxes , stoats and there family might take leverets,,,

 

ian theres quite alot of veraints on wolves,,, some of them are small and lightweight,, and will often hunt alone,,, look at the ones in southern europe,,, no bison there,,, deer yes,,,

 

whatever the reason,, they shure are great animals :thumbs:

[skycat 6,173]

I don't think that this is the same piece of film that I remember seeing on TV, because that hare wasn't a leveret, as is seen in this video. The wolf on the TV film was, they said, 13 years old!

http://www.arkive.org/grey-wolf/canis-lupus/video-08.html

 

I once saw a feature film based on a year in the life of a researcher who went to live in a hut near the Alaskan wolves: it was thought that they were responsible for some of the reindeer (not sure if they were reindeer actually: maybe some other sort of deer) deaths. Turned out that the wolves mostly survived by feeding on the numerous lemming type rodents, only killing deer which were weak due to some liver disease that was spreading through the population.

[skycat 6,173]

And this one: this wolf knows it doesn't need to hurry: look how carefully it runs across the difficult ground:

http://www.arkive.org/grey-wolf/canis-lupus/video-ar08a.html

 

Sorry, a bit off topic.

[donkdaniel 236]

Interesting question, why didn't hares evole into ground dwelling species to avoid predators rather than developing such tremendous athletic ability?

I think if thay did because of their size it would of had to be a big hole in turn a fox could easily get down to them I've seen foxes sqeeze into some tight spots even rabbit burrows but I think a hare burrow would be to big well that's my theory anyway atb donk

[Moll. 1,770]

Perhaps because rabbits are prolific breeders and therefore in greater numbers the hare had to adapt to feeding further afield away from cover, it would need speed to make it back to safety. And because of it's ability to run fast at great distances and the lack of predators who can match this speed it did not need to evolve into a burrowing animal.

[MOO 730]

Perhaps because rabbits are prolific breeders and therefore in greater numbers the hare had to adapt to feeding further afield away from cover, it would need speed to make it back to safety. And because of it's ability to run fast at great distances and the lack of predators who can match this speed it did not need to evolve into a burrowing animal.

But thats my point Moll dureing the evolution of the hare there must of been a predator that caused the hare to evolve into the animal it did ...a prey animal that had nearly the same speed and stamina as the hare cause imo an animal doesnot become so refined and near perfect for running like the brown hare without being pushed hard in the chase over thousandsand thousands of years .