Why are March hares so mad?

Carroll also popularised the phrase "As mad as a hatter", but the two cannot be linked, other than through their association with the Alice author.

I think these references to the March hare are many centuries old - mountain hares were in this country long before Roman times and the Ancient Britons regarded them as sacred; it is said that Boadicea would release one before going into battle, this being some kind of good omen for her. The Romans probably introduced the brown hare which was accorded similar status and it was this kind of superstitious belief that led eventually to the notion that hares were witches in disguise (a topic dealt with recently in this column).

There is no doubt that brown hares are intriguing creatures. Country people have long believed that their curious behaviour around this time of year is due to something slightly abnormal but, in fact, the antics which have led to the "mad hare" label may continue for much longer than March. Some experts believe we notice them at this time of year because the days are growing lighter, hares generally being active during the hours of darkness, and then when the vegetation begins to grow in April, the hares' antics are hidden from view.

Because we tend to see their frolics only during the month of March, we've come to assume this is the only time they occur. In spite of careful research, however, the precise reason for the supposed madness of hares in March is not wholly understood. So what exactly are those antics?

Many country people have seen this odd ritual because the participating hares sometimes get so involved that they ignore what is happening around them, thus enabling people to get quite close.

The affair begins with one hare standing upright on its hind legs and its partner does likewise. They then lash out at one another with their forelegs, rather like a pair of sparring boxers. Whether this is some sort of courtship ritual or a fight is uncertain, but as the sparring continues, the hares' ears will flop back and suddenly one of them will stop boxing. It will then gallop around in a circle while the other gives chase. Soon afterwards, the whole affairs resumes, sometimes with the animals leaping into the air and lashing out with their hind legs - this action can knock an opponent unconscious and is very useful in dealing with predators, like weasels. And it is those powerful legs which can propel a hare along at speeds up to 45mph.

There are reports of large numbers of hares congregating in an open field and all joining this kind of boxing ritual at the same time, quite oblivious to what is happening around them. Sometimes the group will lie immobile on the ground while just two of their number perform, and on other occasions one or two will stand upright and gaze into the distance, as if awaiting the arrival of someone.

It is this strange ritualistic behaviour which has led to the hare being described as mad, especially during the month of March.

For a long time, it was thought these performing hares were a couple of males - called jacks - fighting for the favours of a female, called a jill. More recently, however, research tends to show it may be part of the courtship routine with a jill fending off the unwanted attentions of a jack, and even if this is the case, it might not be restricted to the springtime because hares can breed at any time of the year.

Another theory is that it could be a pair of jacks fighting for supremacy over a piece of territory but it does seem more likely that our hares are not mad in March, but simply following their annual courtship routine.

EARLIER this century, the hare was a very common sight in the countryside, especially on open farm land, but by the end of 1999, numbers had declined by a staggering 80pc. It reached the stage where the sight of a hare was considered unusual, but it does seem that, in recent years, numbers have increased in some areas of England although they remain scarce or even absent in parts of the West Country.

Various reasons are given for this - modern farming methods, poisoning by pesticides, loss of habitat, shooting, the weather and even a disease known as European brown hare syndrome (EBHS) which first appeared in Germany during the Eighties.

One of the problems, from the hare's point of view, is that it lives on the surface of the land and not in burrows. Furthermore, its young, known as leverets, are born on the surface and when danger threatens, the youngsters lie as still as a stone and that is no defence against an oncorming agricultural machine such as a mower, nor does it protect them against poisonous chemicals used on the land.

ANOTHER creature which has been affected both by a decline of its habitat and possibly by changes to our climate, is the delightful dormouse, now very rare in this region. Those which have survived are located chiefly in the South-West of England and perhaps along the South Coast, although there are three small colonies in the Lake District, and another in Northumberland.

The common dormouse, sometimes known as the hazel dormouse because of its liking for those nuts, was once thought to be a miniature red squirrel. This arose due to its general appearance, its reddish colouring, its habitat, its habit of sitting upright with a nut clutched in its front paws and in particular its fluffy tail. Cute is perhaps a term which might be applied to the dormouse and this has caused it to be a very popular pet, especially with Victorian children.

Unfortunately, the dormouse likes to snooze a lot, hence its name (from dorm, meaning to sleep) and its usual hibernation period lasts from late September or early October right through until April - more than half the year - although it might rouse from time to time for a quick feed!

Now, with the climate warming and English winters being milder, with our summers noticeably wetter, the lifestyle of the dormouse has been thrown into confusion. As crops ripen earlier in the summer, so autumn arrives earlier and if the dormouse cannot find food, it will hiberate - but much earlier than normal.

In cold or wet spells, even in summer, it tends to drop off to sleep which means it does not feed as it should. In turn, it now tends to breed later in the year, thus meaning the youngsters don't have time to store up sufficient body fat for their oncoming hibernation.

Sleeping it off is not the answer for dormice. They need food to survive, even when hibernating. Nature is wonderful, however, and there is every possibility that enterprising dormice will find new ways of surviving. Let's hope so.

A FRIEND, whom I had not seen for some years, asked how long I had lived in my present house, and I said: "Just over twenty years."

"Then thoo'll be well and truly heeafed," was his reply.

This is a wonderful dialect word which is widely used when referring to moorland sheep who live on the heights without any fences or walls to confine them. An Anglicised version might be hefted for the term can also refer to a place of human habitation, such as one's home or patch of land.

For sheep, it is the word used to indicate they have lived for generations on the same patch of unfenced moorland, and their youngsters have been born and bred on the same piece of ground. The sheep instinctively know that this is their home and they will never stray from it - although they might take a walk into the village to help themselves to some garden flowers or vegetables - but they will return to that same piece of moorland. Once they have acquired that skill, they are heeafed.

It requires several generations of sheep living on the same land for this instinct to be automatically bred within them and it is delightful to hear farmers speak proudly of their "heeafed yows".