Haring About

One of the reasons that there is such a large number of mammal species in the world is that many of them are restricted to relatively small areas. There are a great many species that can be found only in one place, perhaps because it's a remote island or otherwise physically difficult to leave, or perhaps because they have very specific requirements and can't traverse the terrain between the patches of land that meet them. Others, of course, may have lived across wider areas in the past, but are now endangered, perhaps because their land has been converted to agriculture or urban areas, or because they are seen as either especially tasty or a threat to humans or their crops.

On the other hand, many species are widespread with large populations and seem to be happy in a variety of different habitats. Often, these are animals with a broad diet, able to eat a range of different foods and still remain healthy - the red fox is a good example of this, especially once it started exploiting suburban habitats in the 20th century. Typically, they will not be as good at finding or processing these foods as those that specialise in one particular type but the fact that they can switch food sources easily makes up for this. Indeed, this can be a driver for evolution - an animal becomes really good at exploiting one narrow food source, out-competing the generalists, but the latter remain in the background and, when the world changes and the narrow food source is replaced by something different, become the basic stock from which the next round of specialists will arise.

Small British Mammals: Hares

Brown hare

The most visited post on this blog remains that explaining why rabbits are not rodents (their incisor teeth may look like those of rodents, but there are differences, and they have an extra set). I've also discussed, briefly, how rabbits manage to digest tough plant matter without the extra stomach chambers found in cows and similar animals by using the large bowel as a second stomach, and then eating the food twice.

All of these things are, of course, also true of the close relatives of rabbits, hares. There are two species of hare living wild in Britain, of which the more common is the European or brown hare (Lepus europaeus).  Like rabbits, they were only introduced to Britain during, or perhaps slightly before, Roman times, but they are now widespread across England, Wales, and Scotland.