Mountain Hare

Name: Mountain Hare

Scientific name: Lepus timidus

Category: Mammals

Nature Stars: 80

What are nature stars?

About: The Mountain Hare is about 50cm long, a greyish brown colour in the summer, turning white during the winter. Hares have black tips to their long ears and long legs for running. They graze on vegetation as well as nibbling bark from young trees and bushes. Hares shelter in a 'form', a shallow scrape in the group. Mountain Hares live in the uplands, commonest on heather moorland. Mountain Hares are at their most visible in the spring, when the snow has melted but the hares are still white.

How to identify: Mountain Hares are larger than rabbits but smaller and with shorter ears than Brown Hare. It is a greyer, almost bluey colour in summer, going white in the winter.

Where: Found in the highlands of Scotland, in the Peak District and throughout Ireland.

Natural Superpowers

• Predator: 10
• Agility: 50
• Rarity: 80
• Cute factor: 60
• Traveller: 50

Fantastic fact: In Ireland, the Irish Hare is a subspecies of the Mountain Hare, but found in similar habitats to the Brown Hare.

Photograph credit: Paul Hobson