March 2025 Photo Information

Animal and Camera Details

March

Species shown: European Hare (Lepus europaeus)

This photo was taken in the Netherlands in a pasture nature reserve. The hare jumped over a ditch of at least 2.5m from standstill. Normally a shy animal, the European hare changes its behavior in spring, when it can be seen in daytime chasing other hares. This appears to be competition between males (called bucks) to attain dominance for breeding (Wikipedia). This hare was showing such behavior. At some point it was hesitating at one side of a ditch, while other hares were on the other side. This is when I was anticipating it to jump accross the ditch and caught it in the act of doing so.

The photo was taken with Canon R5 with Canon 500mm f/4 at f/5 , 1/1250s ISO800