Raising Hare: A Memoir

by Chloe Dalton

Siberians name hares by the time of their birth: nastovik (born in March, when snow is covered with crust), letnik (born in summer), listopadnik (born in the fall, when leaves fall from trees). —A. A. Cherkassov, Notes of an East Siberian Hunter, 1865

It would nestle against my heart, in the palm of my hand, long after it had finished.

Hares, I learnt, engage in “cryptic behaviour,” an ecological strategy to avoid predators by means of disguise and camouflage.

The hare…greatly likes to return to its home and loves every spot with which it is familiar. That, you see, is why it is generally caught, because it cannot endure to abandon its native haunts. —Aelian (c. 175–235 AD), On the Nature of Animals

What a destructive, cruel being man is, how many living beings and plants he annihilates to maintain his own life. —Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murat, 1912