The Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus) is a mammal found in North America’s cold climates, often called a “snow bunny.” This nickname comes from its most striking feature: the ability to completely change its fur color from mottled brown in summer to pure white in winter. This seasonal transformation allows the hare to blend seamlessly into its surroundings year-round. To understand how this animal thrives, we must explore the northern habitats it calls home and the specialized traits that enable its survival.
Geographic Range and Preferred Habitat
The Snowshoe Hare occupies a broad distribution across the northern part of the continent, extending throughout the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. Its range stretches south into the northern United States, following the higher elevations of major mountain chains. These areas include the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains, and the Pacific Northwest, where conditions remain cold and snowy.
Snowshoe Hares require specific environmental conditions to survive. They prefer dense coniferous forests, mixed woodlands, and areas with thick, brushy undergrowth. The presence of a dense shrub layer, or understory, is particularly important because it provides immediate cover from predators and shelters them from harsh weather. They typically spend their entire lives within a relatively small home range, provided the local habitat offers sufficient food and refuge.
Unique Adaptations for Survival
The hare’s ability to navigate and survive in its snowy environment is linked to its specialized physical traits. The most well-known adaptation is the seasonal color change, a process known as crypsis, which provides year-round camouflage from predators. Triggered by the changing duration of daylight, the hare molts its reddish-brown summer coat for a dense, insulating white pelage as winter approaches.
The name “snowshoe” comes from its disproportionately large hind feet, which aid locomotion on snow. These feet are wide, heavily furred, and have toes that can spread out, effectively increasing the surface area. This mechanism distributes the hare’s weight, allowing it to move quickly across deep, soft snow without sinking. The dense fur covering the soles of its feet provides both traction and insulation against freezing temperatures. The hare also possesses acute hearing and eyes positioned on the sides of its head, giving it an almost 360-degree field of vision to detect threats.
Diet and Ecological Role
As herbivores, the Snowshoe Hare’s diet shifts dramatically between the seasons to match the available vegetation. During the warmer months, they forage on herbaceous plants, grasses, clover, and the new growth of woody plants. When deep snow covers the ground, the hares switch to a tougher winter diet, primarily consisting of woody browse.
They survive the winter months by eating twigs, buds, evergreen needles, and the bark of trees like willow, birch, and aspen. To maximize the nutrients extracted from this fibrous diet, the hares engage in coprophagy, re-ingesting certain soft feces to cycle the material through their digestive system a second time. The Snowshoe Hare is a foundational species in its ecosystem, serving as a primary food source for predators, including the Canada lynx, bobcats, foxes, and various birds of prey. The population of hares fluctuates in an 8- to 11-year cycle, which drives the population changes of its main predators across the boreal forest.