---
title: "European Hare (Lepus europaeus) | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "Mom parks her furry newborns apart and makes the rounds to nurse them."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/european-hare-1.webp"
published: "2026-10-11"
updated: "2026-10-11"
---
# European Hare (*Lepus europaeus*)
> **Status**: Checked against 3 sources, listed under Sources below.
> **Tagline**: Mom parks her furry newborns apart and makes the rounds to nurse them.
> **Soundtrack Vibe**: Art Pop & Baroque Pop // Kate Bush, "Hounds of Love"
> **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6jWx7mD5oblxybTaWpiPZN)
> **Vibe Match**: Faced with a predator, a European hare runs, and can dodge and change direction quickly. Hounds of Love is a song about fleeing a chase, driven by pounding drums that never let up.
## Biological Superpowers & Stats
- **Taxonomy**: *Lepus europaeus*
- **Danger Level**: Low
- **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2025-1.rlts.t41280a217911459.en))
- **Superpower**: Leverets are born furred and well developed, then spread over a moderately wide area to avoid predation on the whole litter
- **Habitat**: Open fields and pastures bordered by hedgerows and woodlots, often beside farm crops; native from western Europe to Central Asia
- **Diet**: Grasses, herbs and field crops in summer; twigs, buds and bark in winter
- **Tags**: mammal, herbivore, grassland, agricultural, nocturnal
## Natural History & Behavior
## Born furry, then left alone
Baby European hares are called leverets, and they arrive precocial, a word for young that are well developed at birth. Their fur is already long and silky. The mother scatters them across a fairly wide patch, so a predator is less likely to find the whole litter, then goes from one to the next to feed them.
A litter holds 1 to 8 leverets, 3 to 5 on average, and a female has two to several litters a season. Pregnancy lasts 30 to 42 days, and the breeding season runs from midwinter (January or February) to midsummer. Leverets reach sexual maturity at eight months to a year.
## A dent in the grass
By day a hare crouches in a dip in the ground called a form, partly hidden, with its back on show. European hares mostly live alone outside the mating season, and they do most of their feeding at night, between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The coat is yellowish-brown to greyish-brown with a greyish-white underbody, and the long ears have black tips. It has an excellent sense of sight, smell and hearing. Faced with a predator, a hare flees, and when it has to it can dodge and switch direction fast. If needed it will also plunge into a stream, since European hares are decent swimmers. The known predators include red foxes, larger hawks and owls.
## Recycling lunch
> **Second helping**
> European hares commonly swallow their own soft, green droppings a second time, a habit called coprophagia.
Summer meals are grasses, herbs and field crops. Winter switches the diet to twigs, buds, small trees and the bark of shrubs and young fruit trees. Just two or three adults put away as much greenery as a sheep does.
People introduced the hare to Argentina and Australia, where it is a huge pest and its arrival was an agricultural disaster. It breeds quickly and wrecks farmland, especially young apple orchards.
## Size, range and years
An adult weighs 3 to 5 kg and measures 600 to 750 mm in total length, with an average of 680 mm. The AnAge database lists an average adult weight of 4,175 g.
Its home turf stretches from Great Britain and western Europe across the Middle East to Central Asia. People brought the species to Canada, the United States, South America and Australia; Ontario's hares came from Germany in 1912. The IUCN Red List rates it Least Concern.
AnAge's maximum longevity record is about 10.7 years in captivity, from a hare born in the wild. The database also cites an estimate of up to 10.7 years in the wild, and calls it doubtful.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### How big is a European hare?
Adults range from 3 to 5 kg. Measured from nose to tail tip, they run 600 to 750 mm. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web]())*
### How do European hares look after their babies?
Leverets are born with fur and well developed. Their mother spreads them out to lower the risk of a predator taking the whole litter, and travels between them to nurse them. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web]())*
### How long does a European hare live?
The longest life on AnAge's record is about 10.7 years in captivity, reached by a hare born in the wild. AnAge doubts an estimate that wild hares live up to 10.7 years. *(Source: [Human Ageing Genomic Resources, AnAge]())*
## Sources
1. [Lepus europaeus. Animal Diversity Web.]()
2. [AnAge entry for Lepus europaeus. Human Ageing Genomic Resources, AnAge.]()
3. [Hackländer (2025). Lepus europaeus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T41280A217911459.]()
*Published October 11, 2026. Last updated October 11, 2026.*
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