Thread: Weird hare behaviour

Have seen them around here but not on our land yet, they will be in the .22 sights when they do though.

I fully understand what you mean.I don't like to shoot Hares either. Or any bird for that matter.

Originally Posted by oraki

https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/hare...-of-the-street

Just be careful though, they can get angry.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Exactly. They are my favourite animal and I very seldom shoot one. Strangely, I have the same affinity for Pukekos - they just make me smile.

Me too.
I don't really like shooting them or birds.

Don't have any problem shooting hares, but only headshots with a rifle. Bad experience with a shotgun previously. The critter mentioned in my opening post was lucky, I was chasing bigger things that day.

Thanks for all the replies, it's been interesting reading.

you lot obviously havent tried whipping backstraps out of hare and quickfrying them........hard to tell difference from venison

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

you lot obviously havent tried whipping backstraps out of hare and quickfrying them........hard to tell difference from venison

Exactly!

I stock up the freezer with hare carcass’s during the warmer months, done in a crock pot and dished with veggies and spuds ( yes veggies!) as cooked by Mrs Finnwolf they are great eating.

Love spotting and stalking hares in rough ground and tussock land.

I recover every one I shoot and haven’t ever shot and lost one.

Another stupid double post, in the words from Blazing Saddles ‘the frikkin’ thing’s warped’!

They are a great resource. Great meat.
I've always been tempted to try tanning a couple of hides but make a exit hole larger than Trumps ego, so no go.

Hares are an evocative creature that create very mixed emotions as we can see in this thread. Mostly harmless for the average pastoralist, they are however a terrible nuisance if you are in the business of planting shrubs, scrub, trees, riparian stuff.

Our valley and one of the nearby ones have had some major riparian regeneration work, awarding winning stuff. Pulling out all the invasive species and planting natives. The difference to the drainage water quality is amazing, bird life, general vibe all round improved.

Problem is the hares just love to nibble on freshly planted seedling trees. You can kiss thousands of bucks worth of trees goodbye if you’ve got a hate problem. We were away for 6 years, in that time the hare population went through the roof. Dozens of them all over the paddocks. The new owners over the way were suffering heaps of riparian plant species damage and didn’t initially know why. So we turned up and said ah ha, nice to meet you and I know exactly what your problem is... So we lowered the hare population dramatically and hey presto the plant survival rate picked up immediately, to the all-round benefit of the environment as a whole.

Problem with hares is other than cats, they don’t have any predators here that can keep the balance, unlike their natural environments in Europe where they are predated extensively by foxes, raptors, lynx etc. This is a large reason why we see hares so freely in the daytime whereas in other parts of the world they are much more inclined to mostly nocturnal behaviour.

Love the typO "if you’ve got a hate problem."

Funniest thing I ever saw a hare do. It was out in the middle of a paddock with a magpie, they would stare each other down for a bit and the hare would dart in towards the magpie. The magpie would take off and start dive bombing the hare, which would respond by standing on it's hind legs and boxing at it. Then the magpie would land, they'd do the stare down thing and away they went again... Watched them go through this about 5 times. This was in the paddock outside my house, many many magpies and hares shot from the lounge window but those two got left alone that day.

Originally Posted by Kopua Cowboy

Funniest thing I ever saw a hare do. It was out in the middle of a paddock with a magpie, they would stare each other down for a bit and the hare would dart in towards the magpie. The magpie would take off and start dive bombing the hare, which would respond by standing on it's hind legs and boxing at it. Then the magpie would land, they'd do the stare down thing and away they went again... Watched them go through this about 5 times. This was in the paddock outside my house, many many magpies and hares shot from the lounge window but those two got left alone that day.

Magpie might have been having a crack at its Leveret’s.

Greetings All,
Years ago we bought an eight hectare block and planted about 200 Eucalyptus for later firewood. I was losing a few trees to hares so one evening my son, I and Oscar the dog ventured forth to see what we could do about it. Oscar and I headed up the floor of the valley and hadn't gone all that far when two hare's fizzed past. I took a few steps to one side so I could see into the gully they had gone into and, in the gathering gloom, thought I could see one of the hares sitting and looking back at me. I lined up the .223 and touched of a wobbly shot at about 150 metres. As expected I missed and the "hare" moved up the gully and turned into a red hind. Apparently the hind had been standing in a little gut peering over the rim and I had mistaken the head for the hare. The hind stood obligingly side on for long enough for my son to turn up. He had been working up the next gully with his shotgun. We agreed that it was a deer and certainly not a wild one so let it be. I told the farmer, whose land was being subdivided, about the incident and he told the deer farmer and everybody had a good laugh. The hind turned up the next day back at the deer farm wanting to get in and none the worse for her adventure.
I'm writing this on the same block, the hares are still here along with rabbits, quail and the odd pheasant but I am yet to see another deer. We also are knee deep in trees for firewood.
Regards Grandpamac

Hares are plentiful in my area, I very rarely see rabbits around the local farms here. In fact I could count the number of rabbits Ive shot on my fingers in the last 7 years, all hares here.. quite normal to shoot 10-15 in a night. They create havoc in maize season eating al the new shoots.. Ive seen patches in the young maize 50m across eaten to the dirt.

Was in a shop in Dunedin today, it sold ornaments, art and nik-naks.
It had a 1/2 size hare in wrought iron kinda material.

It was standing up in a ‘boxing’ stance and looked cool.

But we are already heavily inundated with dust gathering items so mr hare stayed there.