In Somerset, where the wild begins to tug at the kirtle of England, there is a set of hills called the Mendips.
We had a week’s holiday at a lovely little cottage on a farm there, miles from anywhere much, threaded by footpaths unsuitable for a baby buggy but calling with a siren song nevertheless.
The most important thing we remember about that place was the hare.
We were his neighbours, you see, if only for a week. Our cottage was a ready-made hide. Its windows gazed out upon vast fields of waist high grass, which seem in my memory to stretch to foothills about a mile away.
Phil was no stranger to hares. Aged 11, on a cross country run on the sandy west coast at Southport, he was in a gaggle of young boys who had startled one, and watched it run past them at incredible speed to reach the sand dunes. He marvelled at the back legs which had the power to propel him with such force through his environment.
Phil was struck by the raw freedom of this creature. While the boys must run where they were told, the hare went where it would.
Now a grown man, he watched at evening time, from the little cottage, as a hare could be seen taking its ease. It was not running: rather, it was sitting, wrapped up in a vivid moment, in an English summer, its dark ears and form visible in the swaying grasses.
What man cannot ascertain he makes up in stories. Imbibe the old tales of the hare and you will scent androgyny, fertility, mystery and paradox. The Africans paint the hare a mischief-maker, and the Brer Rabbit stories are said to have evolved from them. The Irish style him a hanger-on of fairies. Aesop’s hare was arrogant and proud; The English white hare was alternately a witch, and a broken-hearted maiden who haunted an unfaithful lover.
I read my friend Susan’s post on hares the other day. Our thoughts turn to the long-eared fleet-footed warrior this time of year. March is traditionally the time when hares become flighty. They act with less than their customary inscrutable gravity. We have loved the metaphor for centuries.
For what could be more electrifying, after a long winter, eating preserved foods and living in the darkness, than a boxing hare?
It is immediate, virile, in-your-face nature. It thrusts a year, ready to grow, into our being. It seems the hare has lain during the dark, dank cold and mist of the Winter months, and now it has received some sign invisible to us; a sign that rude Spring is upon us.
A very male image, wouldn’t you say? An activity akin to jousting or fencing. The one rule about hare fight club is that you don’t talk about hare fight club.
It is best, then, that you think again.
Because a pair of academics spent an inordinate amount of time watching hares closely, and they have come up with a conclusion which turns the gender of Spring on its head.
Durham University academic Paul Greenwood and his Somerset colleague Anthony Holly set up a hare-spotting site. It was on a hill, and long-lens cameras recorded the hares as they went about their business.
Their first discovery: hares were carrying on like this well before March, under the cover of darkness, unobserved by humans.And when the long grass grew they were unobserved once again.
In fact their idiosyncratic behaviour stretched from January to August. The does were available for a very wide window indeed.
Then why, the researchers puzzled, were the males rutting for all this time? Rutting was associated with species whose females were only available for a short spell.
It was when the researchers got to know the hares and recognise genders that the penny dropped.
This was not males rutting. It was males advancing on females, and being given a firm brush off. Or rather, being punched in the face.
A summary article in The Atlantic Monthly records: “The fights lasted as long as two minutes. The pattern was a short chase followed by a flurry of female blows, then another chase and another one-sided encounter – and so on for as many as thirty-four bouts.
“Though amorous males sometimes retaliated, they more often did not, even when heavily cuffed about the head and shoulders. Doe hares being larger than buck hares, some of the males ended up visibly scarred around the ears.”
Poor old battered male hares. Persistent souls, though. You have to hand it to them.
So the March hare joins all those other enchanting stories as a myth. I doubt, though, that we will ever fall out of love with them. They are too powerful; too fast; and too damn wild.
Kate Shrewsday 
as I have always associated March Hares with wild abandon, leaping around with the joys of spring (and not just personal fertility) i shall ignore the scientific evidence and continue with my more laissez faire view of them.
Yay 🙂 Long reign the laissez faire view…
l-)
Lyrical in its descriptive power – wonderful post 🙂
Thanks Linda: the hare is always an inspiration 🙂
Another harexploded myth!
I love hares for thare harebility to give rise to a vhareitably harendless and harendous set of hareable puns!
Grrr – that should have been hareible!
Your puns are never hareable, always hareudite.
Hare, hare! Or, hare-hare-hare. I just can’t hare-lip doing it.
Aint science wonderful?
Is is, innit 🙂
Soooo, wild as a March hare really refers to the fair maidens…..who da thunk it?!
Oh those wascally wabbits….
http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x4053dMerrie Melodies – A Wild Hare (1940) by Cartoonzof2006
That wabbit. One of my favourite wabbits in the entire world 🙂
Slap. Wham. Pop. “Well Milady, I suppose this means ‘no’ ?”
Ah, Carl, but will he take the hint?
Kate – this has nothing to do with Hares but a friend of mine reckons that Bridport is the heavy metal capital of the UK. Just thought I’d share that with you. Oh yeah and saw some hares cavorting in the cotswolds at thr weekend too!
I’d concur on Bridport. Excellent place. Thanks for sharing.
Might have to go out and spot a few hares myself at the weekend!
Nice way to spend the time….
Thank you for the literal laugh-out-loud on this tired, grumpy, weekday beginning to US Daylight Savings Time.
Pitch perfect. I now love them even more… 🙂
Glad the hares gave a chuckle, Brett 🙂
“No,” she said. 🙂 http://www.minigallery.co.uk/Sue_Townsend/art13430/
And WHAM! No means no, doesn’t it, Karen? 😀
My family is from England and this story brings back a lot of my grandmother’s stories. Thank you for the memories.
Glad it brought them back for you 🙂 Thank you for coming along and commenting!
Those men always want the girls who are hard to get, don’t they?
They do: and they have the scars to show for it…erk…
They dare not retaliate and spoil their chances at the next attempt. 😉
No. And they’ll try again: at least 38 times…
Hi, I just remembered that I tagged you in a post last evening and forgot to tell you. One day I’ll get the hang of these things! 😀 Anyway, here is a link to it if you’d like to take a look…
http://hippyh.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/it-girl/
Thanks so much Heather! I look forward to passing on the favour!
Wonderful, Kate. I’ve never seen a boxing match, but, have seen them dancing around each other in wild abandon. Hm. Makes me want to sit down for another read of Watership Down.
Oh, Penny, that book made me so sad! A very sobering tale. But so beautifully observed.
Dear Kate,
Are the Mendips the “Downs” of the book by Richard Adams–“Watership Down”? I must hav read that book thirty years ago and still I remember the mystery of it. The sense of place and the feeling that imbued every line of the book.
Peace.
As a matter of fact, Dee, the Mendips are not the setting, but it is very near me: my parents walk their dog there. One day, I’ll take the camera up and do a post. It looks like we have many Watership Down fans who visit here regularly.
Oh! I so love to see Mad March hares, but you come across them so rarely. I remember, just once, we saw a white one in the snow in the Highlands of Scotland – very memorable. Lovely post.
Wow, that must have been quite a sight, Rosemary! Wonderful!
How aboslutely fascinating but now I don’t know whether to feel sorry for the males who clearly can’t take no for an answer (hmmm) or the females who are clearly domestic abusers! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Ah, we all have our good and bad sides, IE 🙂
The power of lust! Enough to make a man humble! 😀
I know. Good trick if you can pull it off, Amy 😀
just yummy to read
Thanks Doc 🙂
Fascinating. Good for those does!