Most Pennsylvania snowshoe hare records come from iNaturalist photographs rather than specimen data, fitting an animal recognizable enough for a passing hiker to photograph and report. Sightings are thin and scattered across the calendar with no single strong peak, a pattern that likely says more about how seldom this hare is spotted than about any real lull in activity.
Pennsylvania sits near the southern edge of the snowshoe hare’s range, and NatureServe still rates it Apparently Secure in the state, S4, even as its camouflage advantage erodes with shorter, less reliable snow seasons farther south in its range. Eleven of its 13 records carry a county, and they come from just five: Warren and McKean along the northern tier with three each, and Lackawanna, Monroe, and Luzerne in the northeast, the state’s higher, colder forest country where this hare holds on.
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