Boxing clever: The erratic antics of "mad March hares" have always mystified us

On misty white frost-laden mornings in March throughout Scotland, among rolling pastures and flat fields, a strange ritual is being enacted. At the edge of a field a small group of brown hares has gathered, eyeing each other up, looking and waiting.

Then one bounds up to another and both rear up on their hind legs and their front paws flail frantically in a boxing match, before one gives up and retreats to await the next bout. Nearby, another gives chase to its neighbour in an intense burst of brown, blurry speed before the two combatants suddenly break off the engagement. Peace returns momentarily but it isn't long before another boxing match ensues. Welcome to the world of the mad March hare.

The reasons behind this behaviour have only recently come to light. At one time it was thought they involved two males fighting for a mate, but research has shown that it is normally a female hare fending off the advances of an over-amorous suitor because she is not yet ready to mate.

But such confrontations are even more complex than that, with males squaring up to each other as well, but rather than boxing, their aggressive encounters generally involve chasing. Chases involving several hares may be males pursuing a single female. In other words, it's all a bit of a stramash, with each male hare in the group seemingly intent on having a go at his nearest neighbour whenever the fancy takes him. With some males weighing in at three-and-a-half kg, this is an animal that packs one almighty punch.

The term "mad March hare" is something of a misnomer, given that the breeding season is not confined to spring and the sparring matches will continue well into the summer, although the thickening ground cover by then means that such encounters are not so easily witnessed. The hare is also a shy animal and largely nocturnal, which means the best chance of seeing their courting rituals is in the early morning or just before sunset.

It is an inspiring sight, yet sadly it has become a less frequent one because the brown hare population has decreased significantly throughout the UK in recent decades. A complex variety of interacting factors have contributed to this decline, with changes in farming practices being the over-riding reason.

In Britain the hare is largely dependent on the open spaces created by farmland, and they thrive best where there is a good mix of habitats, particularly where there is a patchwork of arable and grass fields and woodland in a relatively small area, so as to provide a continual supply of food and shelter throughout the year. They like to eat wild grasses and herbs and the trend towards larger single crop fields has affected numbers, as have diminishing hedgerows and the loss of their associated ground herbage.

Young hares, or leverets, have also suffered from the move in agriculture over the last 50 years or so from haymaking to silage production. Silage fields are usually cut twice a year compared with the one harvest for hay, taking away cover and food for young hares. The leverets are also vulnerable to being killed by the grass-cutting machinery.

There is, however, some evidence that the fall in the population may have stabilised, and hares are still often seen in many low-lying parts of Scotland, especially in the east, with the highest numbers in the Lothians and Fife, and stretching up into Aberdeenshire.

Introduced into this country by the Romans, and with a turn of acceleration that can take them up to 45mph, the brown hare is undoubtedly one of our more intriguing wild creatures. But is he mad? Well, at this time of year the answer is probably yes, with that insane surge of hormones pulsing through his body driving him to distraction.

This article was first published in the Scotsman, March 6, 2010