Country & Coast: Hares bring countryside madness

The proverb “as mad as a March hare” dates as far back as the 16th century, when it was mentioned in the writings of Sir Thomas More and others, and was given renewed significance by the eccentric tea-partying hare in Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The idiom alludes to the mammal’s odd behaviour in spring, which is widely interpreted as a courtship ritual.

It’s something that can be witnessed by anyone at this time of year in almost any field east of the Vale of York with a bit of luck and a lot of patience. I have watched it through binoculars from a back lane on the outskirts of Goodmanham, near Market Weighton. Two hares seemed to be playing a game which one minute resembled a particularly frenzied hybrid of rugby and tag and the next minute involved them engaging in what looked like a boxing match between two drunks.

For years naturalists interpreted this as a punch-up between two male hares vying for the favours of a female, who presumably watched from the cover of a hedgerow to see who emerged as her victorious suitor, but this scenario now seems well short of the mark.

What’s really going on, apparently, is that a female is sitting on her hind quarters and raising her forelegs like a boxer to fight off the advances of an over-amorous male.

It’s not often that we get to see hares in one place for long. The majority of my observations have begun with a glimpse of two very tall ears protruding out of a crop of wheat, followed by a quick bolt across the field until the animal has disappeared into a ditch or hedge.

With a top speed of 45mph making the brown hare Britain’s fastest mammal, it’s no surprise that it was used to epitomise haste in the famous Aesop fable The Tortoise and the Hare. Hares are longer-limbed and much swifter than rabbits, and don’t use burrows but rather make a simple “nest” on the ground. In Yorkshire it is said that only the mole, hedgehog and rabbit are more widespread in areas of arable land.

Its speed made it a popular hunting quarry with dogs, but so-called hare coursing was outlawed with the Hunting Act of 2004. However, coursers now operate illegally in prime agricultural areas like the Wolds with its vast fields and large population of brown hares, and in the past they have travelled from as far away as Northumbria.

Police in East and North Yorkshire are constantly on the look-out for coursers, helped by the vigilance of farmers who report suspicious vehicles or minor damage to newly sewn crops. Those coursers who are caught face heavy fines as well as the confiscation of cars and dogs.