Rabbits and hares are very effective plant destroying machines, not merely eating enough to get-by, their insatiable appetite for new things and destruction causes much damage throughout the garden.
The best way to keep rabbits out of your garden is to put up a rabbit-proof wire-mesh fence with a maximum mesh size of 2.5cm (1in). The fence should be at least 1.2m (4ft) high, with a further 30cm (12in) of fencing buried below ground level.
Feeding Habits
European hares are herbivorous. During the summer, they eat grasses, herbs and field crops. Their preference is for wild grasses and weeds but they have taken to feeding on crops. During the winter, they eat herbage, twigs, buds and the bark of shrubs and young fruit trees.
Problems caused by hares and rabbits
All three species can occur at high enough densities to cause ecological and economic damage, e.g. by browsing young trees and preventing regrowth.
Conservation Status
Brown hares have little legal protection, partly because they are game animals and can be managed by farmers and landowners, and partly because they are also a minor pest and can damage crops and young tree plantations.
Keep pastures well grazed. Remove prickly and woody weeds (such as gorse, boxthorn and blackberries), rubbish piles and old machinery. Fence off rock piles, building materials, hay bales and woodpiles or store them in a manner that does not create a hiding place for hares.
Hares are renowned for their strong gamey flavour and rich meat. Hares have become less common nationally as farming has become more specialised with grass monocultures in the west of the country and cereal crops in the east.
Hares are More Skittish Than Rabbits
As a rule, they're just as gentle and docile. Like rabbits, though, they'll bite if they feel threatened.
It's best to stick to domesticated rabbit pets
Catching wild rabbits and keeping them can be dangerous, especially since they could transmit the potentially fatal disease known as rabies on to humans who approach them. Not only this, but wild rabbits will not be used to being in hutches and handled by humans.
If you or your kids or pets see a wild rabbit, alive or dead, stay away from it. You might start feeling symptoms of the disease one to 21 days after touching a wild rabbit. Tularemia is highly contagious and is more common in people than it is for pets.
Predators of Hares include owls, hawks, and coyotes.
If people handle a baby hare by mistake, they should return it to where they found it immediately so its mother can find it again. The society suggests gently rubbing the baby hare with grass or leaves to mask the human scent to protect it from predators.
Coffee is an environmentally friendly way to repel unwanted insects and animals in the garden. The smell of the coffee repels snails, slugs and ants. You may also have success using coffee grounds to repel mammals, including cats, rabbits and deer.
Make A Garden Fortress
Putting fencing around your garden is one of the most effective ways to keep squirrels and bunnies from wrecking your space. The most common technique is to make a fence using chicken wire or hardware cloth to surround your garden.
Wild rabbits are difficult to tame, and many will try to kick and bite their way back to freedom.
Wild rabbits never have floppy ears, and will usually have light brown fur. Wild rabbits have long, narrow faces; pet rabbits have plumper cheeks and wide, round eyes. Non-domesticated rabbits will be afraid of humans as they are prey animals and will never approach us.
Hares and rabbits are in the same family, Leporidae, but they're "different species, like sheep and goats are different species," Steven Lukefahr, a geneticist at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, said via email. Young eastern cottontails (Sylvilagus floridanus) snuggle in their nest.
While both rabbits and hares sport long ears and long hind legs, hares tend to be larger, with longer ears and limbs. Hares are also faster, which benefits them in the open habitats that they prefer: hares usually sprint away from predators, while rabbits dart to the nearest hiding place.
Licking: Licking is a way bunnies groom each other. If your bunny licks you, it's a sign of affection as you'll often see pairs of bunnies grooming each other this way. A bunny lick is a sign of a bond.
Cooking and eating hare
Leverets (a hare under one year old) can be roasted but many people prefer slow-cooking to tenderise the back legs – and older hares should always be slow-cooked.
Hare Meat – Interesting Facts
Raw hare meat is a deep reddish brown colour, juicy and has fine fibres. Compared to the mild flavour of rabbit meat, which tastes a little like fowl, hare meat is distinctly more gamey. The leg and back are particularly popular cuts of meat.
Traditionally, hare should be hung undrawn; guts still inside, for seven to ten days to enhance its flavour and to tenderize the meat. However, speaking to several chefs, it appears this can make the meat somewhat overwhelming and so is usually hung with its insides removed.