Field rabbit

--- CONTENT ---
The rabbit (Lepus europaeus), also called hare for short, is a mammal from the family of hares (Leporidae). The species populates open and semi-open landscapes. The natural range includes large parts of the southwestern Palearctic; Due to numerous naturalizations, the field rabbit occurs today on almost all continents. Due to the strong intensification of agriculture, the population of the hare is declining in many regions of Europe. The Schutzgemeinschaft Deutsches Wild declared the field rabbit for the year 2001 and again 2015 animal of the year.

Features

Together with the snow rabbit, the field rabbit is the largest rabbit-like in Europe. The head to truncated length is 55 to 68 centimeters, the tail length 75 to 140 millimeters, the length of the hind feet 124 to 185 and the ear length 100 to 140 millimeters. Adult animals weigh 3.5 to about 5.0 kilograms.

The coat is long, the cover hairs are curved in most of the range, only in the Caucasus and in Asia Minor they are straight. The wool hair has a white base. The back is variable coloured and can be yellowish grey, ochre brown or brown red with yellow shades and black speckled. The back is darker than the sides of the body and the face. The flanks are more rust yellow or reddish brown. The head and neck, the chest and the legs are light brown, the belly is cream white. The ears are pale gray and show a black, about triangular spot at the top. The tail is black on top, white on the underside. In winter fur, the sides of the head, including the ear base, are whiter and the hips more gray.

Distribution and habitat

The field rabbit's natural range includes large parts of the southwestern Palearctic. It extends in a west-east direction from northern central Spain and Brittany to southwestern Siberia and northwestern Mongolia. In a north-south direction, the area extends from Denmark and – leaving the largest part of Scandinavia – approximately the middle of Finland to northern Spain, to northern Italy and to the south of Greece; further east to northern Iran. The species was naturalized mainly for hunting reasons in many other areas of Europe and beyond on other continents. In Europe, the species was established by humans in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, southern Sweden, Corsica and southern Italy. Large holdings are also found today in the northeast of the USA, the south of South America, the south and east of Australia including Tasmania and New Zealand.

The relatively heat-loving species inhabits open and semi-open landscapes such as light forests, steppes, dunes and the agricultural landscape with hedges, bushes or adjacent forests from sea level up to 2500 meters.

In Brandenburg, statistical surveys at the beginning of the 21. It turns out that on average there are still around 8-10 field hares per quadra