Minnesota’s occurrence data include 1,013 snowshoe hare records, almost all from the Arrowhead: Superior National Forest, the Boundary Waters, and Voyageurs National Park. Outside that northern band, the state’s snowshoe hare range essentially runs out, and the record map traces that real boundary rather than uneven searching.
Young, brushy forest and reliable snow
Snowshoe hares need dense low cover, the kind that regenerates after fire or logging in spruce-fir and mixed forest, and Minnesota’s northeastern corner still carries plenty of it. Just as important is snow that actually stays on the ground: the Arrowhead holds some of the most consistent winter snowpack in the Lower 48 outside the Rockies, and that matters because a hare’s white winter coat only works as camouflage if the snow is there to match it. Farther south, where snow comes and goes, a white hare against bare ground turns into an easy target instead of a hidden one.
Easiest to see in a Minnesota winter
Records peak hard in January and February, then drop to almost nothing by late summer. Winter snow shows off a hare’s tracks and its white coat at a distance, while summer’s dense, leafed-out understory hides a brown hare almost completely, even from a careful observer. The hare stays active year-round; what changes is how visible it becomes against the season.
Status in Minnesota
The snowshoe hare is native to Minnesota. NatureServe lists it SNR here, unranked at the state level, though it carries a secure G5 rank globally.
Full species profile
