What's the deal with hares/rabbits? It's like they don't actually exist

Submitted by ConnectionFluffy7297 t3_110pd89 in newhampshire

Hunting regulations in NH state that a hunter may take 3 snowshoe hares per day for six months out of the year. This implies that the population must be very high (by comparison a hunter may only take a single whitetail deer per year). This is corroborated by historical hunting literature which frequently describes hare and rabbit species in general as being prolific breeders, to the point where survival manuals warn against trying to live off hare/rabbit alone ("rabbit starvation"), which suggests that the animal is so common and easy to harvest that one might end up focusing his hunting efforts on it alone out of laziness or something. Outdoor lore is awash with references to rabbit snares, 22s for rabbits, light rabbit loads for big game rifles, etc.

Yet I've been exploring the forests of New England for almost 20 years, from the northern tip of Coos county to the Mohawk forests in MA, and in my experience, hares and rabbits of any kind are by far the rarest animal to encounter in the woods. In a given year I will see dozens of deer and moose and hundreds of turkey, grouse, squirrel, porcupines, foxes, etc for every solitary hare/rabbit I see in nature. I have literally seen more bobcats in person than hares or rabbits.

Does anyone else see hare species regularly or have success hunting them? This has been a source of bewilderment to me for years. Hares are supposed to be a common game animal per every source I've ever read, but in reality it seems you're more likely to encounter bigfoot. It's like the species rapidly went extinct right before I discovered the outdoors and the hunting regs just haven't been updated or something, or we're living in a simulation and there's a glitch causing rabbits to fail to load. I can't think of any other explanation. Based on what I've seen it should be illegal to hunt them because they are clearly critically endangered. I'm allowed to shoot three in one day but I've only seen maybe three in my entire life. I could more easily shoot three fisher cats in one day.

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Mynewadventures t1_j8abe1a wrote

They are there. They see you and make sure that you can't see them.

The cotton tails are in Southern NH, the hares are up North, and you need trained dogs to get any of them.

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tmcuthbert t1_j8ac0ld wrote

They don’t try very hard not to be seen in my neighborhood.

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Mynewadventures t1_j8ac8fz wrote

Ha ha, true. I'm talking about in the woods. But I am always amazed how many I see when I'm driving.

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Mynewadventures t1_j8abm56 wrote

If you want to hunt rabbit (and I suggest you do, it is a great day), make a friend with trained dogs up in the Northern counties.

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ConnectionFluffy7297 OP t1_j8atigp wrote

Then why aren't I flushing them constantly like grouse? I'm an extreme bushwhacker and I scare grouse all the time, probably see almost a hundred of them every year. The way I get them is to mark the exact spot where I saw them on GPS then quietly creep back the next day and shoot them with a .22 pistol before they see me.

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Mynewadventures t1_j8e71bv wrote

Rabbits and hare hunker down and hide, usually in puckers and stands that you would find inaccessible.

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MusicalMerlin1973 t1_j8a9tae wrote

I have a crap ton of rabbits living around my property. My old Tom would clear out warrens once or twice a year but I think he’s finally too old to do much

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The_Road_is_Calling t1_j8ag47b wrote

I grew up in the Lakes Region and don’t think I ever saw a rabbit in the wild.

Moved to southern NH and they are everywhere. Backyards, the park, running across the road. I found it pretty odd that they are much more noticeable in the area with such a higher population density.

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Curious_Buffalo_1206 t1_j8bnb4m wrote

Higher population density means a lot less predators. All you got in the suburbs really are housecats, and while they are prolific serial killers, most of them are indoors, not on the loose.

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comefromawayfan2022 t1_j8llkj2 wrote

I live in the lakes region and my roommate swears he saw bobcat prints the other night. Said we never get bobcats around here

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DeerFlyHater t1_j8abek3 wrote

There are a brazillion rabbits on my place by Littleton.

When I catch them on camera, they're always out at night.

It's amusing to see the tracks in the snow. Fresh rabbit tracks crossed by fresh coyote tracks. Missed Connections Great North Woods style.

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Truthislife13 t1_j8aicoj wrote

I never saw rabbits in Southern NH until maybe a few years ago. Now, it seems like they are reproducing like… bunny rabbits?

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ElisabetSobeckPhD t1_j8aetv9 wrote

I can certainly say I've never seen a snowshoe hare in the wild.

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MysteriousEarth356 t1_j8aee3t wrote

There are bunch of rabbits in my neighborhood. My dog chases them out of my yard almost every day.

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gmcgath t1_j8aikx7 wrote

I can't reliably tell a hare from a rabbit, but there were lots of them, hares I think, when I lived in Kingston.

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SomeDudeOverThere89 t1_j8av2g4 wrote

I'm all but tripping over rabbits where I work along the piscataqua in Newington

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movdqa t1_j8dufei wrote

I was out for a walk Saturday evening in the dark and I use a flashlight when I'm walking in the dark. I swung the flashlight over to a front yard and saw a rabbit scurrying into some brush and it stayed there for a while. I see rabbits in Southern NH once or twice a week when I'm out for a walk or running around the neighborhood.

We have a partial ownership of a place in a Boston suburb and there are rabbits there too. So many that someone's WiFi router name is rabbits. I'd guess the reason why you have or don't have rabbits is the number of natural predators.

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Dukes159 t1_j8e06sp wrote

Grew up in Manchester. I don't think I saw a wild rabbit till 2018 but they're now everywhere in Manchester. I live now in Milford and I get a couple of them in my back yard when its warm. Accidentally cornered one on my porch a couple weeks ago.

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Witchdrdre t1_j8esk8w wrote

I have rabbits living around my house. I see them weekly.

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shinykeys34 t1_j8eyzv4 wrote

Not to nitpick but you can shoot 3 deer statewide, 2 of which are archery. Plus 4,000 doe tags are handed out first come first serve for unit M. These are given only in pairs of 2 tags to each hunter who purchases them (you cannot purchase only one). Also 2,000 doe tags for unit L are raffled off in a lottery as single tags to each hunter. So in total if you really wanted to you can harvest 5 deer every year and another in unit L if you draw. That many deer a year is probably excessive for most people and even families but many deer hunters achieve bringing home multiple deer every year.

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SolitudeNH t1_j8ggt2x wrote

My cats get rabbits all the time, and I’ve tagged a few with my bow.

Tromping through the deep woods won’t present rabbits for you. Go in fields, edge of woods bordering fields, around gardens, spots they like. They aren’t like squirrels that go for nuts, hence why you find squirrels around oak groves. It’s easy enough if you go in the right spots. Hardest part is IDing between cottontails and snowshoes on a glimpse

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Emptyplates t1_j8d5vyn wrote

I've been in my house for 5 years now and haven't seen a single hare or rabbit. I've seen hare tracks in the snow but have never spotted the hare itself.

We have tons of predators come through the property pretty regularly, hawks, coyotes, foxes, bobcats and ermine, which is likely why I don't see them.

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