Let Battle Commence

If you suspect people are using our countryside for illegal hare coursing, make sure they are reported to police.

- Sue Bromley

THE first time I saw real ‘Mad March hares’ was on a sunny spring day walking through the hillsides and meadows above Hedgerley in South Buckinghamshire. There he was, appearing to be putting on a show for us humans passing by, a frenetic mix of crazed break-dancing and gymnastics with some aerobatic showstoppers. Definitely as mad as they come, but more than entertaining enough to entrance us all as he zigzagged across the daisies before coming to an abrupt halt.

And then up popped another one at his side, apparently just as mad, but this time the angry version, rather than simply crazy. For the second hare seemed to take umbrage at the original show off’s efforts and promptly ‘biffed’ him on the nose. Ding! Ding! Round Two, waving paws engaged, a high-speed stand up fist fight which I took to be two young male yobbo hares battling over territory… until one of our party pointed out that the newcomer was actually a female dealing with the unwelcome attentions of an amorous suitor. Well, we’ve all done it, but not usually with kicks and head-butting thrown in with kung fu style high speed punch combinations.

Even when you know what’s going on, hares still have that magical appeal, the stuff of myths and ancient superstition, although they only arrived on these islands with the Romans. Indeed, there’s a legend that Boudica ‘consulted’ the entrails of a hare to look for omens before taking on the might of the invaders.

Then there’s that ‘Mad March’ tag. The truth is that the male-female boxing matches can go on for months from February right through to August, by which time everyone seems to have called it a draw, paired off and got down to producing some leverets, the baby hares.