Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) are indeed herbivores, meaning their diet consists primarily of plant matter. This adaptation allows snowshoe hares to thrive in their diverse habitats across North America by consuming various forms of vegetation.
Primary Food Sources
Snowshoe hares consume a wide variety of plant materials throughout the year. Their diet includes herbaceous plants like grasses, ferns, leaves, and new growth from woody vegetation. They also browse on twigs, buds, and bark from numerous tree and shrub species.
Specific examples of herbaceous plants they eat include:
Clover
Dandelions
Vetch
Strawberry
Fireweed
Lupine
Bluebell
Woody plant sources include:
Aspen
Red maple
Balsam fir
Beaked hazelnut
Buffaloberry
Various conifers (spruce, Douglas-fir, western hemlock)
Hares prefer small stems, often around 0.25 inches in diameter, due to their manageability. They can stand to clip shrubs up to 45 centimeters from the ground, especially as snow depths increase.
Seasonal Dietary Shifts
The diet of snowshoe hares changes significantly with the seasons, adapting to the availability of different food sources. During spring and summer, when vegetation is lush, their diet primarily consists of succulent green plants. This includes abundant herbaceous plants, leaves, and flowers.
As colder months arrive and plant growth diminishes, their diet shifts to more woody materials. In fall and winter, snowshoe hares rely on twigs, buds, and bark from trees and shrubs. Conifer needles, such as those from spruce, also become a component of their winter forage. This seasonal flexibility is crucial for their survival, particularly when preferred food items become scarce under deep snow.
Digestive Adaptations and Nutritional Requirements
Snowshoe hares possess specialized digestive adaptations that enable them to efficiently process their high-fiber, plant-based diet. Like other lagomorphs, they are hindgut fermenters, meaning the breakdown of tough plant cellulose occurs in their large intestine and a specialized pouch called the cecum. Within the cecum, symbiotic bacteria ferment the plant material, making nutrients available.
To maximize nutrient extraction from their fibrous diet, snowshoe hares engage in coprophagy, or re-ingesting their own feces. They produce two types of fecal pellets: hard, undigested waste and softer, nutrient-rich pellets called cecotropes. By consuming these cecotropes, hares gain access to additional proteins and B-vitamins produced by the bacteria in their cecum, which were not absorbed during the first passage through the digestive tract. Snowshoe hares require a mean dietary crude protein concentration of about 11.3% of dry matter intake to maintain their weight during winter. They may also supplement their diet by consuming mineral-rich soil, which can improve sodium balance and overall food intake.