Snowshoe hare identification can be tricky. Here are some tips to differentiate between snowshoe hares and eastern cottontail rabbits.
Snowshoe Hares in Ontario: Southern Range and Coat Colour Change
This project is being conducted by Victoria Reimer as part of an undergraduate conservation biology internship at Trent University, and supervised by Dr. Jeff Bowman at the MNRF. There are three specific objectives to this project: establish the southern range limits of snowshoe hares in Ontario, determine when the hares' fur colour changes in the fall and spring throughout the province, and compare the coat colour changes to patterns of snow cover in the province.
The data for the project will be collected on iNaturalist. I am interested in receiving any photos of snowshoe hares that app users observe, but I am particularly interested in seeing users' first sighting of white or molting hares for the season.
If you see a snowshoe hare in Ontario, you can contribute by adding your sighting to the Ontario Snowshoe Hares project on iNaturalist, by taking the following steps:
1) Take a picture of a snowshoe hare.
2) Upload your picture to the Ontario Snowshoe Hares project on iNaturalist on the mobile app, or by visiting:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ontario-snowshoe-hares
3) You will find “Log in or Sign up” in the top right corner of the web page. You will not be able to submit observations if you do not have an iNaturalist account.
4) Submit!