The Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus) is a familiar mammal across the North American boreal forests, known for its dramatic seasonal coat change from brown to white. While fundamentally herbivores, their diet is not strictly limited to plant matter. Snowshoe hares occasionally consume meat, a behavior driven by necessity rather than preference. This opportunistic feeding is a survival strategy, especially where obtaining sufficient nutrients from vegetation alone can be a challenge.
The Primary Diet of the Snowshoe Hare
The Snowshoe Hare is classified as a dedicated browsing herbivore, with the bulk of its diet consisting of plant materials that shift dramatically with the seasons. During the summer, when food is abundant, hares consume lush, green vegetation, including herbaceous plants, grasses, and the tender growth of woody shrubs and trees.
Once winter sets in, available food sources become significantly limited in quantity and nutritional value. Hares shift to a diet composed almost entirely of woody vegetation, such as the twigs, buds, and bark of species like willow, birch, and spruce. This winter browse is high in fiber and low in protein, making it a challenging food source for energy and growth.
The Necessity of Opportunistic Carnivory
Despite their classification as herbivores, Snowshoe Hares engage in opportunistic carnivory, most evident during deep winter. Hares are not predators, but scavengers, consuming carrion they find in the forest. This behavior has been documented through trail camera studies in the Yukon, showing hares feeding on the carcasses of various animals.
The consumed carrion can include the remains of birds, such as grouse and loons, and even the flesh of predators, like the Canadian lynx. The primary motivation for eating meat is to supplement a diet severely lacking in protein and fat during the cold season. Their winter woody diet often falls below the protein threshold required to maintain body weight, making the nutrient-dense meat a valuable resource. Hares have even been observed defending a carcass from other hares, indicating the high value placed on this unusual food source.
Other Non-Plant Items Consumed
The Snowshoe Hare’s unusual dietary habits extend beyond consuming carrion; they also engage in coprophagy, the re-ingestion of their own feces. This practice is a crucial part of their digestive efficiency, allowing them to extract maximum nutrition from the high-fiber vegetation they consume. They produce two types of pellets: hard, fibrous pellets and soft, nutrient-rich pellets called cecotropes.
The cecotropes are formed in the cecum, a pouch where specialized gut bacteria break down initially indigestible plant material. These soft pellets are rich in B vitamins and proteins synthesized by the microbes, and hares consume them directly to absorb these nutrients. This re-digestion process can supply up to 20% of the hare’s daily protein requirement. Hares also consume soil, a behavior known as geophagy, particularly from mineral licks, to obtain essential minerals like sodium and calcium that are often scarce in the woody browse during the winter.