Hares

   In Redwall

• Alignment: Good
• Nicknames: Rabbit [an insult], long-ears, walking stomach
• Appearance: Hares are tall and lanky, usually far taller than other goodbeasts excepting badgers.  They are usually thin, despite their voracious appetites, though there are some overweight hares.  Most either wear jester-type clothing or sand-brown Salamandastron tunics.  They are great runners due to their long legs, with more endurance on land than perhaps any other Redwall creature.  They are also very agile.  Hares are rarely described as "muscular," as their muscles tend to be the long, thin muscles of racers.  They are never described as beautiful or handsome, though a female hare is occasionally described as pretty or attractive.  However, they'll often joke about how beautiful or handsome they or another hare is.  They carry any weapon, though javelins, lances, and pikes are the most common.
• Life Span: Hares seem to be longer lived than most of the other goodbeasts, with the exception of badgers.
• Diet: Hares eat a ton, and they'll eat anything.
• Habitat: Many hares live in Salamandastron, though some live in warrens separate from the mountain, and some live in Redwall (though never more than a few at a time).
• Typical Personality: Hares have been called irrepressible, perilous, gluttonous, and a host of other things.  They seem to have the typical British attitude, tending to become even lighter-humored than normal when tension is high.  They're very good at insults and almost always excellent warriors.  They have a strong sense of justice and loyalty, and can't stand to see a goodbeast in pain.  
• Habits: Hares eat.  All the time.  Their appetite is famous throughout Mossflower and beyond.  They also have a very British accent.

   Outside Redwall

• Classification: Order: Lagomorpha; Family: Leporidae; Species: Lepus europaeous
• Other Names: European hare; jack rabbit; brown hare; common hare
• Appearance: Hares weigh from 3 to 5 kg and are 600 - 750 mm long.  They have long, black-tipped ears, yellow-brown to gray-brown fur, a brown face, and darker rings around their eyes.  
• Life Span: Up to 12 years
• Diet: Hares eat grass, herbs, and field crops in summer.  In winter, they'll eat twigs, buds, shrub bark, small trees, and young fruit tree bark.  
• Habitat: Most hares live in open fields and pastures surrounded by hedgerows and trees.  They live in shallow ditches, clumps of weeds or grass, or in bush.
• Typical Personality: Hares tend to be quiet and a bit nervous- small prey animals often are, as they have to be constantly alert in order to avoid predators.  
• Habits: Hares are nocturnal, and do not hibernate in winter.  They do often dodge and weave when being chased by a predator, and are very fast - hares can run up to 35 mph.  They are also decent swimmers.
• Life Cycle: Litters vary from 1 to 8 leverets in a litter, with 3 to 5 being the norm.  There are two or more litters a season, and there are two breeding seasons.  The leverets are weaned after one month and become adults between 8 and 12 months. 
• Sites for Further Research:
  • Lepus europaeus

European hare