Hares are generally larger, and have longer hind legs then rabbits and longer ears with characteristic black markings. The skulls of rabbits and hares are also different. Rabbit's fur coat remains its color year-round, while hares change color from grayish brown in summer to white in winter.
Rabbits and hares have different diets. If rabbits prefer soft stems, grass or vegetables, hares eat more hard food: bark and rind, buds, small twigs and shoot.
Rabbits usually live in burrows or tunnels in the ground, where they prefer to stay during daylight hours. They try to keep hidden. Hares on the other hand, always stay on the surface among plants and usually try to escape enemies by running.
Rabbits are very social animals; they live in colonies. Male rabbits even fight within a group to become the dominant male. The dominant male rabbit then mates with most of the females in the area. In opposite, hares live most of the time by themselves. They come together in pairs for mating only. There is almost no fighting among hares - they just pair off.
It is amazing that the nature has created such different animals to look the same. But now we know the difference between them and will not be deceived anymore by those tricky long-eared creatures...read more>>>...
