Spot the Hare

1.

It's October at the Coppermine River, near Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Lichen-covered rocks and boulders form a slope. There are a few patches of snow and some plants. A single Arctic hare in its white winter coat is resting near some plants. It's difficult to tell the difference between the patches of snow and the white-coated hare. With winter snow expected daily, being white-furred is a good thing for an Arctic hare.

2.

Lower slopes at Sverdrup Pass, Ellesmere Island are covered with angular rocks of varying sizes. Late winter snow covers some of them completely and it is drifted up against others. A single white hare resting in the shelter of the largest rock is almost impossible to see.

3.

On the grassy summer tundra, light brownish-grey rocks are scattered across the vegetation. Among the rocks, a young Arctic hare of similar colour and shape lies motionless, pressing its body and head tightly to the ground. This hare thinks you can't see him at all, though it is starting to turn white long before the snow comes and so is not as well camouflaged as it was earlier in the season.

4.

A flock of Rock Ptarmigan feed in a flat, almost completely snow-dusted landscape. It is difficult to spot the birds because their white feathers with some brown still showing blend into the patchy snow. It is difficult to distinguish the single, young, white Arctic hare among them from both the landscape and the birds. Arctic hares sometimes feed alongside other herbivores like muskoxen, caribou and these Rock Ptarmigan.

5.

On Rabbit Island, Nunavut, an Arctic hare runs for cover across a rocky outcropping dotted with patches of brightly-coloured plants. Because it is late August the hare's summer coat is mottled grey with white legs and tail, making the hare hard to see against the light and dark of the sun-splashed rocks.

6.

Against a summer scene of scattered plants, brown rocks and glacial gravel at Sverdrup Pass on Ellesmere Island, two brown-furred leverets can be seen only by looking for their dark eyes and the upright position of their black-tipped ears.

7.

With the late-winter sun well below the horizon at Ellesmere Island, a valley is shadowed in dark blue. In this low light, the two white Arctic hares feeding in the distance blend in with the snow-drifted, rocky terrain, their shapes barely distinguishable.

8.

A biologist walks through a field of snow-covered glacial boulders looking for two Arctic hares. The white hares watch the biologist from among the jumble of rocks in the foreground. That biologist did not spot those hares.

9.

It's late August, Sverdrup Pass, Ellesmere Island (Nunavut). Autumn winds have blown early snow over the tundra, forming small drifts and patches of bare ground. In this dazzling variation of snow and ground, seven white Arctic hares are feeding in a patch of shallow snow. The white High-Arctic Arctic hares are again well camouflaged now that snow has come.

10.

On rocky terrain in April at Sverdrup Pass on Ellesmere Island, a particularly large boulder is flanked by shallow, late-winter snowdrifts. On these drifts, 11 white Arctic hares are resting, grooming or moving, some in sunlight, others in shadow. Arctic hares often gather around large rocks for shelter while resting and grooming.

11.

In the foreground, an Arctic hare is visible in the sunlight as it feeds in the snow. In the background, a person wearing dark clothing watches from the shadow of a large glacial boulder. Biologists try to be unobtrusive when watching Arctic hares, so that they see normal behaviour.