What is a mountain hare? Where does it live? And how does it differ to the brown hare and rabbit? Nicole Wallace takes a look <\/p>

Did you know that the Scotland Highlands has its very own protected native species of hare called the mountain hare (Lepus timidus<\/em>)?\u00a0 They inhabit upland areas of woodland and heather moorland in Scotland and England, differing to the European brown hare in size, colour and habitat.<\/p>\n

Rabbit vs hare: what\u2019s the difference?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Why do rabbits have such long ears?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
<\/p><\/div>

$\""Rabbit\"$ <\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>
How big are mountain hares?<\/h2>\n
Mountain hares are larger than rabbits<\/a><\/strong> and slightly smaller than brown hares, reaching up to 60cm in length and 4kg in weight.<\/p>\n
What do mountain hares look like?<\/h2>\n
During the summer their coats are a grey-brown colour with a hint of blue, meaning they blend into their heather backdrop very well.<\/p>\n
In contrast their winter their coat is almost pure white to help them camouflage against the snow, whilst their ear tips stay black. Their diet is similar to a brown hare but also includes a large portion of heather.<\/p>\n\nNicole Wallace is a Clyde Valley Ranger with Scottish Wildlife Trust<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr\/>Main\u00a0 image \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is a mountain hare? Where does it live? And how does it differ to the brown hare and rabbit? Nicole Wallace takes a look <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27943,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/what-is-a-mountain-hare-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"What is a mountain hare? Where does it live? And how does it differ to the brown hare and rabbit? Nicole Wallace takes a look","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

How big are mountain hares?<\/h2>\nMountain hares are larger than rabbits<\/a><\/strong> and slightly smaller than brown hares, reaching up to 60cm in length and 4kg in weight.<\/p>\n

How big are mountain hares?<\/h2>\n
Mountain hares are larger than rabbits<\/a><\/strong> and slightly smaller than brown hares, reaching up to 60cm in length and 4kg in weight.<\/p>\n