20 in. long
The African hare has two pairs of chisel–shaped incisors—teeth that have evolved for cutting and nipping vegetation. It measures 20 inches, with a strong hind foot that measures about 4 inches, and mobile ears that are as long or longer.
Behavior & Diet
It spends most of the day lying in a “form”—a depression in the ground or under bushes. Hares do not dig burrows like rabbits do.
Hares eat leaves, buds, roots, berries, fungi, bark, and twigs. Like rabbits, hares produce two types of droppings—the first is soft and rich in vitamins and is reingested for maximum nutrient gain, and the second is hard, dry, and pellet–like.
The female hare gives birth to one or two young, which are born fully haired and with open eyes. The mother only spends a short amount of time each day suckling the young; the rest of the time they hide in forms trying to avoid the attention of predators.
To protect themselves, African hares rely on camouflage, speed, and their senses of hearing and smell. If an enemy is near, the hare will freeze and crouch low to the ground. If danger continues to approach, the hare may pop into the air and dash away in a zigzag pattern. The hare gives a shrill scream if in peril but is otherwise mostly silent.
The hare has been hunted for centuries, not only for its meat and fur, but also just for sport.
Human settlement, ranching, and the fencing of land result in the loss of the African hare’s habitat.
Our solutions to protecting the African hare:
African Wildlife Foundation engages communities living near wildlife to create sustainable practices for agricultural and settlement growth by providing training on best practices and incentivizing conservation agriculture when appropriate. This helps increase agricultural and economic productivity and allows communities to rely less on hunting their local wildlife and exhausting populations.
In Zambia, AWF rebuilt Lupani School, in exchange for the Sekute communities’ efforts in wildlife conservation. By working with rural communities that live in close proximity to wildlife in order to incentivize conservation and weave it into primary school education, we are providing tangible benefits to wildlife conservation.
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