Hare Food Folklore And Mythology The Three Hares

They are very fast moving. The European Brown Hare can run at speeds of up to 70 km/h (45 mi/h). Hares live solitarily or in pairs.

Normally a shy animal, the European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) changes its behaviour in spring, when hares can be seen in broad daylight chasing one another around meadows; this appears to be competition between males to attain dominance (and hence more access to breeding females). During this spring frenzy, hares can be seen "boxing"; one hare striking another with its paws. For a long time it had been thought that this was more inter-male competition, but closer observation has revealed that it is usually a female hitting a male; either to show that she is not yet quite ready to mate, or as a test of his determination. Hares bear their young above ground, in a form rather than a burrow ; the young are adapted to this in being fully furred and with their eyes open at birth.

The related rabbits and cottontail rabbitCottontail rabbits : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Lagomorpha : Leporidae Sylvilagus ''Sylvilagus aquaticus Swamp Rabbit Sylvilagus auduboni Desert Cottontail Sylvilagus bachmani Brush Rabbit Sylvilagus brasiliensis Forest Rabbit Sylvilagus cuniculariss differ from hares in having young that are born blind and hairless, and often in burrows underground. However, often the word "hare" refers to large members of the family Leporidae only. For a brief discussion of the differences between rabbits and "true" hares, see this website.

1 Food

The hare's diet is very similar to that of the rabbit.

2 Folklore and Mythology

The hare in African folk tales is a trickster: some of the stories about the hare were retold among African slaves in America, and are the basis of the Brer Rabbit stories. (Note that the famous cartoon trickster Bugs Bunny is a jackrabbit, which is actually a species of hare.) The hare appears in English folklore in the saying "as mad as a March hare".

Many cultures, including the Japanese, see a hare in the pattern of craters in the moon (see Man in the Moon). The constellation Lepus represents a hare.

2.1 The Three Hares

Recent (2004) research has followed the history and migration of a symbolic image of three hares with conjoined ears. In this image, three hares are seen chasing each other in a circle with their heads near its centre. While each of the animals appears to have two ears, only three ears are depicted. The ears form a triangle at the centre of the circle and each is shared by two of the hares. The image has been traced from Christian churches in the English county of Devon right back along the Silk Road to China, via Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It is possible that even before its appearance in China it was actually first depicted in the Middle East before being re-imported centuries later. Its use has been found associated with Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist sites stretching back to about 600 CE. External link: The Three Hares Project

Leporids

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2.1 The Three Hares

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