With Spring underway, animals in the Rockies have been busy breeding. This includes jackrabbits, one of the first mammals to start giving birth when the seasons change.
Jackrabbit babies, also known as hares, are being dropped off at the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation (AIWC) one after the other. Here’s why.
Baby hares are born without a scent. This allows them to avoid being caught by predators. Because of this, a mother jackrabbit can leave her hares unattended for hours to feed.
Additionally, jackrabbit hares aren’t born naked and ugly like us. They are born with a full coat of fur, eyes open, and the ability to move and feed on their own.
“A lot of people see a baby hare left on its own and feel they need to rescue them, but they’re actually totally fine and should stay left where they are,” Rachel Swart, the communications coordinator for the AIWC, told Cochrane Today.
Believe it or not, mother jackrabbits only nurse their babies a few times daily for the first two to three days. After that, they are on their own.
However, when most people stumble upon a baby hare on its own, their first instinct is to bring it to wildlife shelters or veterinary hospitals.
That’s precisely what has happened in Rocky View County. Residents have transported several hares to the AIWC, thinking they were abandoned. Can you blame them?
If you found a child alone at a mall, wouldn’t you bring them to mall security?
That being said, hares don’t do well in the care of humans because of how sensitive their gastrointestinal system is. Hares only have a 10% chance of being successfully reintroduced to the wild.
“It’s best for them just to get their mother’s milk since we can’t replicate it exactly in care,” continued Swart.
With this in mind, the AIWC promotes the message, “See a hare, to leave it there.”
So, next time you see an adorable baby jackrabbit, think twice about ‘kidnapping’ it.
