Classroom lesson 路 Wildlife馃嚝馃嚪 France

The European hare

Faster than most dogs, with huge eyes and even bigger ears

A European hare sitting alert in a grassy field

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

A European hare looks a bit like a giant rabbit, but it is actually a different (and faster) animal. It lives in fields and grasslands across France. It can run at over 70 kilometres an hour - faster than most dogs and faster than a horse on the open ground.

Tell me more

Hares are built for speed. They have very long back legs that work like springs, and a lighter body than a rabbit. When a hare is chased, it doesn't run in a straight line - it does sharp zig-zags to confuse the animal chasing it. A hare can change direction at full speed, almost as if it has brakes.

Their huge ears are not just for hearing. Hares also use them to keep cool. On a hot day, blood travels through tiny tubes in their long ears, and the air cools the blood down before it goes back into the body. The ears work like a built-in cooling system.

Unlike rabbits, hares do not dig burrows. They live above ground in shallow scoops they press into long grass, called 'forms'. Baby hares are called leverets and are born ready - already covered in fur, with their eyes open, and able to hop within hours.

In spring, you might spot two hares standing up on their back legs and 'boxing' each other in a field. People used to think this was two males fighting. Scientists later worked out it is usually a female telling a too-keen male she is not interested by giving him a good shove.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Hares zig-zag instead of running straight. Why might that be a smart way to escape from something faster?
  2. 02Lots of animals use parts of their body to cool down. Can you think of how a dog cools itself? An elephant?
  3. 03Why might a rabbit dig a burrow but a hare doesn't? What do they each get for living the way they do?
Try this

Classroom activity

Time the fastest runner in class on a 50-metre dash. A hare would cover the same distance in around 2.5 seconds. Work out how much further along the playground the hare would be by the time you finish. Mark the spot with chalk.

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