Rex Trulove
There can be some confusion about rabbits and hares. They look very similar, often live in the same areas, and eat similar foods. However, they are not the same thing.
It is worth mentioning that both of these animals are lagomorphs. They aren’t rodents. Among other things, rodents have four front teeth; two in the upper and two in the lower jaw. The teeth grow throughout the lifetime of the animals. Rabbits and hares have six front teeth. Right behind the upper pair of front teeth, lagomorphs have another pair of peg teeth.
So what is the difference between a rabbit and a hare? A rabbit, such as a cottontail or a domesticated “bunny” is born naked, helpless, with the eyes closed at birth like a newborn kitten. The young are also normally born in a burrow in the ground. Rabbits spend a lot of their time in burrows, in fact. When a rabbit is confronted by a predator, its natural impulse is to hide in its burrow.
Rabbits are also sociable animals that prefer eating tender grasses and other similar plants. When they breed, a dominant male or buck will breed with all the females or does in his harem. A buck rabbit will often fight any other bucks that come into his territory.
A hare, such as a Jackrabbit or snowshoe hare, is born fully furred, with the eyes open, and they can run and hop very shortly after birth. The babies are normally born in a shallow “scrape’, under a bush or other natural shelter. Hares don’t burrow and stay on top of the ground. If confronted by a predator, hares will usually attempt to outrun the predator.
Hares aren’t very sociable and are often found away from other hares. They also tend to eat tougher plants. When hares breed, they simply pair off and the bucks rarely fight with one another. Buck hares don’t have harems of does.
Hares tend to be larger than rabbits, but this isn’t always a telling feature and there can be exceptions. For example, Arctic hares are normally quite small when full grown, on the order of 1 to 3 pounds. A Flemish giant rabbit often weighs between 14 and 25 pounds and the largest rabbit on record weighed 55 pounds. Hares tend to be fleeter than rabbits, however, and they can often outrun predators. This explains why they run when danger approaches.
There are other differences, too. It is partly due to the differences between hares and rabbits that they don’t interbreed, even though they often have ranges that overlap one another.
I use to raise rabbits & your right they are different from one another &
your article made a lot of sense to those that had no idea about the 2.
We also raised rabbits. One thing I didn’t mention because some people would be squeamish about it, but rabbits and hares also taste different, almost certainly because of the differences in what they eat.
I have ate my share of DOMESTIC rabbits in my day
If I was in another location other than where I am I
would more than likely be raising them again just
for the meat I miss so much & their GOOD for you too.
That was the main reason we raised them years back. We currently have a pet rabbit that we wouldn’t consider eating, but that is the exception rather than the rule.
I can respect that. I’m just saying
this article interesting! good job
Thank you. I’m glad that you liked it.
Interesting. I always thought the differences were purely semantic.
You aren’t alone, Gary. A lot of people don’t realize that there really is a difference.
I did not know all of this. I only knew hares were larger than rabbits. Thanks!
A lot of people don’t even know that there is a difference, Carol. :))
Good info, Rex. Both rabbits and hares visit my garden, and generally I have no difficulty telling them apart. Their movement is quite different, with hares moving a little like deer.
That is a good observation. Hares are prone to walking when they aren’t in a hurry, while rabbits hop, even if they aren’t in a rush.
Is Bugs Bunny a rabbit or a hare? Hehehe.
This is a very interesting article. I bet 99% of us here never knew the difference. In fact I think I still wouldn’t be able to tell which one is a rabbit or a hare.
At a distance and just looking at them, most people probably couldn’t tell the difference unless they could actually identify the animal and knew if it was a rabbit or a hare. If you saw several of the animals close together, though, you could be reasonably assured that they were rabbits. It isn’t strange that people couldn’t normally tell the difference, though. After all, most people probably couldn’t tell the difference between a bobcat and a lynx. :))
Incidentally, while I don’t know for sure about Bugs, the original Bugs Bunny was drawn more like a hare and the later one was drawn like a rabbit. I don’t really know.
Hm, I had no idea that they are so different. Thanks for sharing.
You aren’t alone. Many people think of rabbits and hare interchangeably.
Similarities: they’re equally cute … lol
Differences: Rabbits are more coward?? lol
That is one way to put it. Actually, they are equally as timid. Rabbits just hide and hares run away. :))
It seems like one breed is domesticated while the other is wild, if I’m following your logic…
Not quite. Normally, hares aren’t domesticated, but they can be. Rabbits have simply been pets for so long and have been bred for food for even longer, that there are now a lot of different kinds of domestic rabbits, which may or may not share a lot of the traits of their ancestors (probably cottontails, since they are so widespread). A friend managed, with difficulty, to capture a jackrabbit pup that wasn’t more than a few hours old, and he kept it as a pet for quite some time.
Obviously hares can be domesticated or there would be no such thing as rabbits…
Don’t get trapped into thinking that rabbits are domesticated hares. They are different creatures. A person can domesticate a hare, breed them, raise them, and so forth for many generations, but they will still have a hare and not a rabbit.
I think they’re just the same. Hihi
I mean I never knew they’re different. Thanks, Rex for introducing them to us. New learnings.
You are quite welcome. There are many people who don’t know that they are different and in fact, can’t even interbreed.
They’re both lagomorphs, what’s the difference? (he just wrote a whole post telling us the difference!)
Yes, that just makes them similar. In the same way, a deer, elk, moose, and caribou are all cervids, but they are all quite different in many ways. What I didn’t mention is that there is a third member of the lagomorphs; the pika. Yet, a pika doesn’t really look like a rabbit or a hare. They remind me more of a cute, fluffy, overgrown mouse.
Pikas remind me more of chinchillas, less the tail…
Yes, sort of. I think that a pika is cute, but not quite in the same way that I think of a bunny as being cute. lol
Learn something every day. Thanks, Rex!
You’re welcome and thank you! I found out only recently that many people really don’t realize that rabbits and hares are different.
A very interesting information. I really enjoyed it
I’m glad that you found the article interesting. Thank you!