New arrival - stuffed European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778)

(Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778)

A stuffed young male European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778), which came to us from a nursery in the village of Kalabino, Lipetsk Region, was made by our taxidermists.

European hare is referred to large hares weighing up to 6-7 kg. The largest species are found in the north. The body is fragile. Outwardly, the European hare is well distinguished from the mountain hare by its longer ears. The eyes are reddish brown. The hind limbs are longer than those of the mountain hare, but the forelimbs are shorter and narrower, since the European hare is found in regions where the snow cover is relatively shallow and hard.

Summer color is ocher-gray, brown, ocher-red or olive-brown and has many other different shades. Fur is characterized by large dark streaks formed by the ends of the undercoat hair. The ends of the guard hairs are ocher. The fur of the hare is shiny, silky, noticeably crimped. The sides are lighter than the back; the belly is white, without ripples. There are white rings around the eyes. The tips of the ears are black all year round. Winter fur is slightly lighter than summer fur (unlike mountain hare, European hares are never snow-white in winter); head, tips of the ears and front of the back remain dark even in winter. There is no sexual dimorphism in coloration.

European hare is a native prairie animal of Europe, Asia and North Africa. Within Russia it is found throughout the European part of the country to the northern shores of Ladoga and Onega lakes, the Northern Dvina; further the distribution boundary goes through Kirov, Perm, skirting the Ural Mountains, through Kurgan to the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. The southern border passes through the Transcaucasus, the Caspian, Ustyurt, the northern Aral Sea to Karaganda. It has acclimatized in a number of regions of Southern Siberia (piedmont regions of Altai, Salair and Kuznetsk Alatau). It has been brought and set free in the Altai and the Krasnoyarsk regions, in the Novosibirsk, the Kemerovo, the Irkutsk and the Chita regions. It has acclimatized in the Far East. European hare has been artificially settled in North America. So, the hare was brought to the state of New York in 1893 and in 1912 to the province of Ontario (Canada). Now it can be found mainly in the Great Lakes region. It has also been imported to Central and South America; it has acclimatized in New Zealand and southern regions of Australia, where turned to become a pest after that.

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