Monday, February 7, 2011

A Snowy Winter Animal: the Arctic Hare!

It's a fact: I love bunnies. My favorite animal at the local museum is the Arctic Hare. It's so cute, fuzzy, and cuddly looking! If you live in my area, go check it out for free on Wednesday nights.

Fuzzy pouf balls!

As you probably know, the Arctic is one pretty chilly place. That means that animals have to be super douper fuzzy to keep warm. The Arctic hare squishes its body into a pouf ball to stay cozy.

This cute snow bunny also digs holes in the snow to sleep or hide in. These little burrows keep them warm because they are protected from the icy wind. Arctic wolves are a predator of the hare, so these houses can protect the bunnies from being eaten.





Big back feet and short ears.

Arctic hares have big back feet so they can hop on the snow. The big surface area works like snowshoes, keeping them above the snow and not stuck in it.

They also have short little ears, unlike most bunnies, because they need to conserve heat! If they had long ears they would lose more heat from them.







Its white color is a form of camouflage so its predators can't see them! In the summer when all the snow melts, the Arctic hares change color, from white to a greyish-brown, so it matches the mud and rocks around it.


Arctic hares like chewing on leaves, grasses, berries, and woody plants. They can smell food even if it's buried under the snow!




I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Animal Blogs.

3 comments:

  1. This is a wonderful blog : ). I can't wait to see more. You could turn these into childrens books if you wanted to.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed ! A great blog. Keep it up. The arctic hare is one of the cutest of all tundra animals.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice photo!!! nice blog!!
    Lepus arcticus, or arctic hare, also known as polar rabbit, are a kind or specie of hare that is most likely to find in mountainous and polar habitat.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...