Do you want to tidy up the garden after the winter? Before turning on the mower, take two minutes. Only two. They could mean the difference between life and death for some little guest hiding in the grass. Every year, with the arrival of warm weather, thousands of hares are accidentally killed while mowing lawns — in private gardens, in vegetable gardens, even in fields. A silent and almost always involuntary massacre, which can be avoided with a little attention.
The common hare (Lepus europaeus) is a wild animal increasingly present also in urban and peri-urban contexts. Unlike other mammals, it does not dig burrows: it gives birth directly on the surface of the ground, in small depressions hidden among tall grass, bushes or undergrowth. The nest — technically called form — is little more than a hollow in the ground, lined with maternal fur and dry leaves. At first glance it simply looks like a tuft of dead grass. Easy to ignore, very easy to destroy without wanting to.
Hares are born with their eyes open and covered in fur — they are called nidifugal — but in the first weeks of life they are still defenseless and remain in the nest. The mother visits them only briefly, at night, to breastfeed them: an evolutionary strategy to avoid attracting predators. This means that if you find an apparently abandoned den during the day, don’t be alarmed: the mother is almost certainly nearby and will return.
What to do if you find a hare nest in your garden? First of all, don’t touch the babies if it’s not strictly necessary: the human smell doesn’t make the mother abandon them (it’s a hard-to-die myth), but handling the puppies exposes them to unnecessary stress. Keep dogs and cats away from the area. Postpone mowing that area until the hares have moved out on their own — usually 3-4 weeks after birth. However, if the nest is in a truly dangerous place or the chicks appear injured or in difficulty, immediately contact a wildlife rescue center (CRAS) in your area and follow their instructions.
More generally, it is worth rethinking our relationship with the lawn. March is the right time to clean up winter brush, but May is a month to protect: mowing everything in this period means eliminating shelters for insects, destroying flowers such as daisies and dandelions which are essential for pollinators, and risking overwhelming nests of various species. The “No Mow May” movement, born in the United Kingdom and now widespread throughout Europe, calls for precisely this: to leave at least part of the lawn free to grow during the month of May. (Read also: Here’s why you should never mow your lawn during the month of May)
A slightly wild meadow, in short, is not a neglected meadow. It’s a living meadow.
