🧙 😬 🤦🏻 What is the difference between a hare and a rabbit: similarities and differences 👩🏾‍🤝‍👨🏻 😅 🛳️

What is the difference between a hare and a rabbit? Not everyone can answer this question. The fact is that these cute fluffy animals are very similar to each other. And it is not always possible to accurately determine where one is and where the other is.

Someone will say, hares and rabbits are one and the same, only the first ones are wild, and the second are tamed. It's not like that at all. Both the hare and the rabbit can be wild. There is also a misconception that both of these animals belong to rodents. Yes, they like to gnaw carrots, but they are not rodents (like mice, hamsters, etc.). They have their own classification - these animals belong to the order Zaytseobraznye.

What is the difference between a rabbit and a hare? And what is common between them? It seems that many questions concern these questions. Therefore, it is simply necessary to understand. Let's get started.

There are not so many similarities between them as it might seem at first glance. Appearance, similar physical structure, taste preferences, general dangers and enemies. And perhaps that's all. There are many more differences.

Distribution geography

In the wild, the hare can be found in almost any corner of our planet. The only exceptions are the remote islands and Australia. The fact is that most of the territory of the earth hares flooded due to the fact that they were specially imported from the European continent.

Rabbits are much less common. Their habitat is North and South America. Of course, they can be found in other places, but mostly as pets.

Appearance

what is the difference between a rabbit and a hare

What is the difference between a hare and a rabbit externally? It would seem that they are so similar! But there are differences. Yes, they both have long ears, a short ponytail, fluffy fur and long teeth. But:

the hare is much larger than the rabbit;
a rabbit never changes its coat color, even in winter, unlike a hare, which begins to molt with the beginning of winter (at such moments, the hair of a hare turns from gray to snow-white);
the rabbit’s ears are shorter, as he spends most of his life in closed, confined spaces;
the hare has longer and stronger legs, as it is much more mobile than the rabbit, which prefers to dig minks over running.

Behavior

The difference between the hare and the rabbit is noticeable in the way they prefer to fight danger. The hare is fast and agile. And also very nervous. Smelling a wolf or a fox, he begins to run away. Hares are much faster than rabbits. It is all about the structure of the skeleton, namely the hind limbs. The hare's hind legs are much longer and stronger. However, he can come down from the mountain only head over heels, and a rabbit having a more proportional structure of its legs will calmly escape from any slope. But in the direct distance, the hare will give a hundred points ahead in speed.

Rabbits are calmer and more balanced than their wild relatives. They prefer to eat and relax. They can do it all day. So if you have a rabbit, you yourself can limit his diet. These animals are very lazy, but not shy. When danger is approaching, the rabbit will not run away. He will quickly dig a mink and hide in it. Moreover, these animals dig at such a speed that you are simply amazed! Here he was, but he is not.

Progeny

Of course, both the rabbit and the hare breed. The difference here is in speed and quantity. The rabbit is very dominant. He will never live alone, only with his rabbit. Live and breed, breed, breed ...

Rabbits carry offspring much faster than hares. Pregnancy lasts up to 32 days. In one litter, the rabbit has 10 to 16 cubs. All of them are born blind, naked and helpless. And usually the first two weeks they live exclusively at the expense of mother's milk. The rabbits are very caring with their offspring and are absolutely intolerant and aggressive towards other people's cubs. They can even tear the unhappy stray rabbit to them. So, without consequences, it will not work to put foreign cubs to them.

The hare is the exact opposite. He is an eternal bachelor. But, however, to leave their mark on this earth is also not against. Hare offspring are not as numerous as rabbits. Bunnies give birth one at a time, a maximum of two babies. Cubs are born fully formed. They already have wool, they hear, see and can safely eat even adult food. The rabbit leaves such independent cubs under the same bush under which she gave birth. As a rule, he will give them some milk, which lasts for three days, bury them in a hole and leave them at the mercy of fate. And the bunnies begin an independent life. If they are lucky and the fox does not find their shelter, getting hungry, they begin to publish infrasounds that are not audible to the hunter's ear, but are understandable to any rabbit running past. She immediately wakes up maternal instinct. The hare digs up the rabbits, feeds them milk and, like her mother ... leaves. And so it is repeated with each, who turned out to be nearby a representative of a bunny female, who also recently gave birth.

By the way, hares and rabbits are not subject to cross among themselves. Many breeders tried to improve domestic rabbit breeds in this way. But their attempts did not yield positive results.

Taming

What is the difference between a hare and a rabbit yet? The fact that it can not be tamed. Here it is. This is a real forest resident and a wild animal that loves freedom. In ancient times, people tried to breed bunnies to get valuable fur and delicious meat. But at the slightest opportunity, the animals ran into the forest.

Rabbits are tame. And easy enough. Therefore, today it is not uncommon when you can meet this fluffy lover of food as a pet.

So, it's time to take stock.