Hares (RSPB Spotlight)

Spotlight: Hares is packed with eye-catching, informative colour photos, and features succinct and detailed text written by a knowledgeable naturalist.

With their wild glare, swift turn of foot and secretive nature, hares are the rabbit's mysterious and untamable cousin. Always a thrilling wildlife spot, hares have also been associated with human culture and folklore for many centuries - their associations with spring can be traced back to the druids.

Focussing on the Brown Hare and its relative the Mountain Hare, RSPB Spotlight Hares offers exciting and up-to-date information on these incredible lagomorphs, with chapters covering their biology, evolution, natural history, behaviour, including courtship rituals, and ecology. Information on some of the more charismatic species of hare found elsewhere in the world and on hares' other relatives, the rabbits and pikas, is also provided.

Author Nancy Jennings discusses in detail Hares' interactions with humans, in agriculture, habitat management, shooting and hunting, where and how to see hares, as well as in more culinary matters, and reveals why this almost mythical animal of hill and meadow is so sensitive to the changes we make to age-old farming landscapes. The cultural significance of hares is also discussed, including the Easter hare, Lewis Carroll's mad March hare, and hares as shape-changers.