Mountain or Blue Hare.

[Vimto]

I am aware that certain hares in Europe change their colour in winter from brown to white. I have actually seen one which was in a change process from white back to brown close to Snaefell on the Isle of Man in April one year. Are these hares which change colour and are described as Mountain or Blue hares a separate species or maybe just a separate race from the lowland hare animal which we know as the brown hare or is it simply a change in climate or elevation which makes a brown hare become a blue hare according to climate?

[wildwood]

The Mountain/Blue hare Lepus timidus is a separate species form the brown lowland hare Lepus europaeus.

It is indeed the different climate which caused the blue hare to develop shorter ears and other adaptations to the cold and thin air over millions of years. These two species have been geographically separated for so long that they have evolved sufficiently to become a separate species .