With its strong feet a Snowshoe Hare can jump 10 feet sideways to keep away from its enemies, which are bobcats and other big cats, such as mountain lions. It lives in the Subalpine forest of Colorado and eats grass, sedges, forbs, bark, and buds of aspens, alder, birch and willow trees. Its range is 8,000 to 11,500 feet high. It can get to be 16 to 18 inches long including its tail but it only weighs 2 pounds. Its back feet can be 6 inches long. The females can produce 1 to 4 litters a season and they have 3 hares in each litter. They are born with fur unlike rabbits which are born bald, but they are related to each other. The young are weaned in about a month. And by April they are almost full grown. The adults are almost 10 times larger than when they were born.

I got my information from COLORADO WILDLIFE by Jeff Rennicke.

 It is a snowy day in Canada when suddenly you see a small animal cross your path! It has white fur. It is 16-20 inches long. It makes a squeal because it's in pain . It may be a ......snow shoe hare!

Snowshoe hares' enemies usually are wolves, foxes and lynx. Weasels and stoats hunt the babies. Eagles, hawks and owls hunt them from the air. Guess what snowshoe hares eat! They eat plants, herbs, young tree bark, sea weed and carrion-- which is meat from a dead animal. They mostly live in Alaska and Canada. They also live in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Southern New Mexico. Their habitat is in mountain slopes, thicket or swamps. Can you believe that their group is the legomorph group which means hare-shaped and they belong to the same group as the rabbits? In the summer they are brown to fit in to their surroundings.

Authors and books: WILDLIFE OF THE WORLD by Marshell Cavendish, GUIDE TO WESTERN WILDLIFE by Buddy Mays and DISCOVERING WESTERN WILDLIFE.