Here you see a snowshoe hare venturing out at dusk Wednesday and looking like she just snuck a lick of vanilla ice cream. By the time of our first significant snowfall, this hare will have molted to virtually all white for camouflage. And, if recent years are any indication, she’ll be white before the ground is covered with snow, which is not good.
Our climate warming is creating less snow, but the snowshoes can’t seem to control their winter molts, making them almost glowing targets on winter nights when there’s no snow cover and sharp-eyed great horned owls, lynx, and bobcats are flying and prowling.
The hares’ large, stiff-furred hind feet become snowshoes and help them run and quickly change directions in snow. If it’s there. Nonetheless, they are fast, no matter what the terrain. There are reports of them being clocked at up to 30 miles per hour.
Maine has a somewhat similar species, the New England cottontail (NEC) or “cooney.” It’s a true rabbit; the snowshoe is not. Snowshoes have larger bodies, longer ears, and much longer feet than cottontails. Snowshoes also are common, while the NEC has become almost rare and is listed by the state as Endangered. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 24, 2025; sex assumed.)