Oregon’s 378 snowshoe hare records follow the state’s conifer forests on both flanks of the Cascades. Coast Range counties lead, with Tillamook and Clatsop at the top and Siuslaw National Forest the busiest named site, while the Three Sisters and Eagle Cap wilderness areas, Mt. Hood National Forest, and Crater Lake country hold the mountain record.
Camouflage that changes with the season
The snowshoe hare molts from summer brown to winter white as day length shortens, then reverses in spring, staying matched to snow or bare ground on both schedules. Oversized, heavily furred hind feet let it run on top of deep snow that stalls its predators, and dense conifer understory gives it the close cover it rarely strays far from. It browses buds, twigs, and bark through winter and grazes green growth in summer.
A summer-tilted calendar
Reports climb from June through August, when hares feed in open meadows and forest edges on long days and young of the year are out and visible. The hare itself never hibernates and stays active through the snowiest months, moving along packed trails beneath the canopy. Snowshoe hare numbers also rise and fall in multi-year cycles, so a good hare year and a poor one can look very different on the same ground.
Status in Oregon
NatureServe ranks the snowshoe hare S4, Apparently Secure, in Oregon, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
