Snowshoe hare feet ?

[fishinwrench]

3 minutes ago, fshndoug said:

That looks like Lassie in that picture. That rabbit must weigh a 100 lbs. Size 10 shoe on that rabbit.

Dip him in water, then its feet will be a size 2 and he'll weigh 10 extra pounds.   😅

[tjm]

12 hours ago, BilletHead said:

Have you ever seen a snowshoe hair?

Probably. I thought so at the time but they were always 20-30 yards away and moving. I never saw their feet up close. Locals in New England called them "swampers" and they did live in wet areas. There is a chance they were just big yellow rabbits. I've probably seen more jackrabbits than all other leporid species put together, since I saw two population explosion/decline cycles in Idaho and Oregon high deserts. As I remember them they had bigger feet than any domestic that I  have seen

I got side tracked after posting the dog image, I had gathered some comparison about rabbits and bunnies, not much about the feet though-

Typical hares length and weight-

Whitetail jackrabbit 18-22 inches 5-10 pounds
Blacktail jackrabbit 17-21" 3-7 pounds
Snowshoe hare 13-18 inches 2-4 pounds -It has larger feet than the whitetail and blacktail jackrabbits.
Antelope jackrabbit 19-21 inches  6-13 pounds
European hare 25-27"  7-10 pounds
Arctic hare  19 to 26 inches  6-15 pounds
Alaska Hare 25" 10 pounds

30? species of cottontails, some of the more typical species-
Swamp rabbit 17-20" 4-5 Pounds (a cotton tail)
Eastern cottontail 14-19" 2-4 Pounds
 New England cottontail  14-19" 2-4 Pounds
Marsh rabbits 17" 2-2.6 pounds

Wild  European rabbit 16" 2.6-4.4 pounds
Domestic rabbits derived from European rabbit total about  106 breeds from dwarf to giant. At least 10 breeds weighing between 12-25 pounds.

Given a large snowshoe weighs ~4#, I'd guess some of those domestic 12# plus bunnies must have feet just as big.

There is overlap of ranges with snowshoe and other hares such as the Arctic, Alaska, and jackrabits, as well as with a few cottontails.

"Snowshoe hares occur from Newfoundland to Alaska; south in the Sierra Nevada to central California; in the Rocky Mountains to southern Utah and northern New Mexico; and in the Appalachian Mountains to West Virginia. Populations in its southern range, such as in Ohio, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia have been extirpated."

[Johnsfolly]

13 hours ago, tjm said:

In case anyone is wondering that is not Lassie, but a shetland sheepdog. A small breed of dog. Next to a flemish giant, which is a rabbit and not a hare.

[Johnsfolly]

@tjmLooks like you were missing the jackalope 🤣

[tjm]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

@tjmLooks like you were missing the jackalope 🤣

They have tiny hooves, I think so probably easy to pick out of a bucket of rabbit feet.

Truthfully I went looking for foot comparisons and  was astonished at the number of species there are. Kinda got caught up in the collection of info on them all. There some foot sizes given for some species on a few of the dozens of sites I looked at but not enough to establish any comparisons.

My thoughts were initially  that like @BilletHeadsaid any of us could pick a snowshoe foot out of rabbit feet by the foot size and hair/fur quality differences, then when trying to confirm that, i started to wonder more and more. It's a wild hare chase.

Other trivia- ''Pliny the Elder advocated a diet of hare as a means of increasing sexual attractiveness and also claimed that hare meat had the power to cure sterility."

Mad as a March hare relates to hares boxing during their mating season.

" An image of three running hares formed into a circle has been found in medieval churches, cathedrals and even inns across Britain. A floor tile dated to around 1400, found in the nave of Chester Cathedral, depicts a trio of hares separated by trefoil-shaped vegetation. Joined at their tips, their ears form a triangle, each hare apparently with two ears, though the tile artist has drawn only three in total."

European hares  rabbits were  native only to the Iberian peninsula but as far back as the Roman days were introduced throughout the Continent and into Briton for the hunt.

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

European hares were  native only to the Iberian peninsula but as far back as the Roman days were introduced throughout the Continent and into Briton for the hunt

I have seen many when we lived in Ireland. Some areas would have 20 or 30 in a field. Not many people hunted them at that time. It seems that more folks that did hunt them would use animals more so than with guns. We went to a sportsmans show and folks there were selling hunting ferrets and lurcher dogs for hare hunting. From my understanding, the Lurchers would chase and grab the hare by the head if possible and shake it until it was dead.

[tjm]

one of the pictures I saw  depicted well dressed ladies of some long gone time "hunting rabbits" with one lady holding a cage over an entrance to the warren and the other lady releasing a ferret  into an opposite entrance. That is sport, right?

[BilletHead]

         Hares do not dig holes, Rabbits will and will connect holes to form a warren. Our native cottontail is an exception and will not burrow but hide in a form or under something. Sometimes they will use a hole in extreme cold during winter. 

    Rabbits and hares are really not survival food. Yes, it will fill your belly but lacks essential fats. If you only eat rabbit, you will lose body weight. 

[tjm]

I confused hares and rabbits as being only native to Spain and Portugal, changed that.

[BilletHead]

1 minute ago, tjm said:

one of the pictures I saw  depicted well dressed ladies of some long gone time "hunting rabbits" with one lady holding a cage over an entrance to the warren and the other lady releasing a ferret  into an opposite entrance. That is sport, right?

           Yes, it is or was at one time and I bet it is still in practice.  Rabbits with beagles comes to mind. We used to get several bowhunters together and have a couple standers on brush rows. The rest would walk the inside and outsides slowly looking for bunnies. Soon the driven rabbits would go out and run towards the outside walkers. The closer you got to the standers the more Chaos would show. Yes we killed rabbits and I have limited many times with archery equipment. It was a hoot!