I was in the bush yesterday. A hare appeared out about 20 metres away and ran straight towards me. I stayed still and it stopped at my feet. It had a sniff, then ran back to where it appeared from. It then did the same thing a second time. Weird!
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I was in the bush yesterday. A hare appeared out about 20 metres away and ran straight towards me. I stayed still and it stopped at my feet. It had a sniff, then ran back to where it appeared from. It then did the same thing a second time. Weird!
Have had kiwis do the same thing, suspect they can smell soil / plant matter from different areas on the soles of your shoes. Its the only explanation i can think of
Had this happen a few times most have then been followed by a stoat or Weasel
Have had them run directly at me whilst out spotlighting an many occasions literally shooting them at my feet. @Ryan_Songhurst you saw a hare do something funny the other day ?
The expression "mad as a March hare" is relevant. March is the Hare's northern hemisphere spring mating time when they do their "dance" etc.
Down here its in our spring, mostly I've seen it in September.
One of the most beautiful things you'll see in nature in NZ (our native species included). Put me off shooting hares for life really.
https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/hare...-of-the-street
Just be careful though, they can get angry.
female in season....males all run after her,sometimes up to dozen of them,sooner or later she lets them catchup...or at least one of them.
saw hare at 20 yards in bush the other day...seen it there before too. maybe a female had run through where you were standing and this romeo was a bit late to party and you just happened to be in the way....you werent wearing lynx perchance???
Except for fact that if you shoot one you'll virtually alway get its mate because they don't bugger off, I haven't seem hairs do what the OP'S describe.
Plenty of rabbits running towards the spotlight and disappearing underneath the ute.
Sadist thing (depending upon your point of view of course) was in Oz. Our family was sitting on a raised brick terrace out front in the middle of the day when a rabbit came thru our front gate and continued in a straight line towards us until, thud, it hit the terrace. It's eyes were completely closed and matted with myxo puss. I had the honour of disposing it. No one else wanted to touch it.
Yep love to watch Hares and also the little Parma wallaby up here. Bush robins too.
always wondered how hard it would be to manufacture female hare scent.........would be more fun than whistling foxes or decoying mallards,just dont bend over.
so there i was driving home and i ran over a hare, as soon as i stopped the mrs jumped out of the car and sprinkled some liquid on it and it came back to life
i said what the hell was that?
she replied hair restorer
as we drove home later the same hare was sitting upright flapping around its front paw
wtf???
she said " it was for permanent wave"
I hate having the walking disease bags running around
every one I shoot seems to be riddled with ticks or something equally disgusting
Years ago on a training run I just crested a rise to see a low flying hawk. Then I saw why, it was chasing a hare along the road not far in front of me. It had 2 failed goes at nabbing it. They both ran out of road as they hit the T intersection and the hare went straight ahead into the scrub and next thing a crash as the highly focussed hawk did the same. I got there just as the hawk was disentangling itself and exited stage right empty clawed.
This above is correct. Just in the last week I have seen hares laying run over, in one place two side by side. They are like rutting young stags without the roaring at this time of year.
I once shot nine randy bucks chasing a doe in season. The local record is thirteen
I like them, they seem intelligent at times and have a curious nature.
I stopped shooting them years ago after an incident that made me feel terrible. They do seem very prone to ticks , sometimes with hundreds of the horrible things all over them.
Unusual behaviour fairly common in the 'silly season' - mating! Bucks engage in all sorts of antics round the paddock.
Very common for hares to run up to spotlight too - happens all the time with us. We actually have a rule - if the bunny runs right up to you in the light, and you can reach down and pick him up, then we all wish him well and let him go. Catch and release!! Only two so far..
i once saw a hundred of the furry critters line up and walk backwards
guess it was a receding hare line :P
Deleted due to stupid double post.:omg:
i met a useless magician, he couldnt even pull a rabbit out of a hat so he pulled a hare out of his bum
Last year we planted a bunch of steep gullies in pines, at the back of the farm. Naturally we began hare patrols. I managed to tip a mum and dad over at 200ish, so the wife wanted to go check them out. Mum was Very pregnant. So an autopsy was requested. a line of five baby hares were lined up in the conveyer belt of life. She unwrapped one "oh its sooooo cute" clears its mouth of mucus and gives a wee blow. Bugger me it pops to life and then stares at us accusingly.
Apparently they are the worlds worst parents. Just leave the elvers to their own devices for most of the day, and hope they can find them at the end of the day.
my best hare shot (and never to probably repeated) 983m.
dont know where i hit it as it kind of vapourised under the impact of a 140 gr nosler out the end of a 7mmRM
Have seen them around here but not on our land yet, they will be in the .22 sights when they do though.
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
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.":XD: