Hares are herbivorous and feed mainly on grasses and herbs, supplementing these with twigs, buds, bark and field crops, particularly in winter.

They rely on high-speed endurance running to escape predation, having long, powerful limbs and large nostrils.

Generally nocturnal and shy in nature, hares change their behaviour in the spring, when they can be seen in broad daylight chasing one another around in fields.

The European hare is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature because it has a wide range and is moderately abundant.

[1] Cladogenetic analysis suggests that European hares survived the last glacial period during the Pleistocene via refugia in southern Europe (Italian peninsula and Balkans) and Asia Minor.

[20] The fur colour is grizzled yellow-brown on the back; rufous on the shoulders, legs, neck and throat; white on the underside and black on the tail and ear tips.

[22] It has also been introduced, mostly as game animal, to North America in Ontario and New York State, and unsuccessfully in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, the Southern Cone in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and the Falkland Islands, Australia, both islands of New Zealand and the south Pacific coast of Russia.

In mainly grass farms, its numbers increased with are improved pastures, some arable crops and patches of woodland.

It also seems to be fewer in number in areas with high European rabbit populations,[27] although there appears to be little interaction between the two species and no aggression.

[28] Although European hares are shot as game when plentiful, this is a self-limiting activity and is less likely to occur in localities where the species is scarce.

[21] It avoids cereal crops when other more attractive foods are available, and appears to prefer high energy foodstuffs over crude dietary fiber.

In small gatherings, dominants are more successful in defending food, but as more individuals join in, they must spend more time driving off others.

[32][33] Females, or does, can be found pregnant in all breeding months and males, or bucks, are fertile all year round except during October and November.

[34] Females have six-weekly reproductive cycles and are receptive for only a few hours at a time, making competition among local bucks intense.

[32] At the height of the breeding season, this phenomenon is known as "March madness",[33] when the normally nocturnal bucks are forced to be active in the daytime.

In addition to dominant animals subduing subordinates, the female fights off her numerous suitors if she is not ready to mate.

[32] Female fertility continues through May, June and July, but testosterone production decreases in males and sexual behaviour becomes less overt.

[36] The leverets are fully furred and are precocial, being ready to leave the nest soon after they are born, an adaptation to the lack of physical protection relative to that afforded by a burrow.

Their mother visits them for nursing soon after sunset; the young suckle for around five minutes, urinating while they do so, with the doe licking up the fluid.

[42] In North America, foxes and coyotes are probably the most common predators, with bobcats and lynx also preying on them in more remote locations.

[43] In Australia, European hares were reported as being infected by four species of nematode, six of coccidian, several liver flukes and two canine tapeworms.

[46] In October 2018, it was reported that a mutated form of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV2) may have jumped to hares in the UK.

[58] Across Europe, over five million European hares are shot each year, making it probably the most important game mammal on the continent.

This popularity has threatened regional varieties such as those of France and Denmark, through large-scale importing of hares from Eastern European countries such as Hungary.

[60] More recently, informal hare coursing became a lower class activity and was conducted without the landowner's permission;[61] it is also now illegal.

[65][67] The European hare has a wide range across Europe and western Asia and has been introduced to a number of other countries around the globe, often as a game species.

[68] The hare is an adaptable species and can move into new habitats, but it thrives best when there is an availability of a wide variety of weeds and other herbs to supplement its main diet of grasses.

[1] The hare is considered a pest in some areas; it is more likely to damage crops and young trees in winter when there are not enough alternative foodstuffs available.

However, at low population densities, hares are vulnerable to local extinctions as the available gene pool declines, making inbreeding more likely.

To counteract this, a captive breeding program has been implemented in Spain, and the relocation of some individuals from one location to another has increased genetic variety.