Polar Animals: First Grade Research

From "Arctic Hare", Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006.

What are Arctic Hares?

• Arctic hares look a lot like cottontail rabbits. They have a summer coat of brown fur that grows out into a white coat for the winter. They grow to be between one and three feet  tall with three to five-inch  tails. They weigh between 5 and 10 pounds .

Where do Arctic hares live?

• Arctic hares live in the cold arctic plains during the summer and the forests during the winter. They usually live alone, but are found in very large groups during mating season.{Picture}

What do Arctic Hares eat?

• Arctic hares eat mostly grasses and arctic willows. In warmer climates they also eat grain.

Arctic Hare babies

• Mating season for arctic hares takes place in the spring and summer. The female then gives birth to a litter of between one and nine leveretes, young hares. {Picture}
  

Other Facts

• Arctic hares are preyed upon by arctic foxes, wolves, and golden eagles. When a group of arctic hares is attacked, the hares each run in different directions. The arctic hare's white fur helps to give it camouflage during the winter. In the summer, new brown hairs replace the white fur and give the hare protection from predators during the summer.{Picture}

• The arctic hare has a life span of less than one year.

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Glossary:

camouflage: a way of hiding something by covering or coloring it so that it looks like its surroundings.

litter:a group of young animals born to one mother at one time.

leveretes: baby hares