Snowshoe hare track showing a resting position. Note the sit spot and the hind feet behind the smaller front feet. When hopping, their hind feet will land ahead of their front feet.
While tromping through a northwestern woodland in Maine, I recently came across a track I seldom see and heard myself exclaim, Snowshoe Hare! I laughed because I was on snowshoes too, but not staying atop the deep snow as this hare had. I even imagined how surprised the hare might be on its next pass through to find my large, deep snowshoe tracks… and the obstacles they might be to its evening trek. I wondered where the hare’s daytime brambles or hollow tree hideaway was… how far it ventured on nightly foraging rounds… how old it was, what perils it had already faced - if it included evading Canada Lynx, and if it had raised a family. And I mused on the hare's seasonal coat change from summer brown to winter white... and then on the number of coat changes I had in my closet (not two!).
Check out these resources by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) to learn more about snowshoe hare and tracking.
A snowshoe hare during the summer in Maine. Photo by Katherine Wittemore, USFWS.
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