Snowshoe hare

The snowshoe hare is a medium-sized hare with large ears and large hind feet. The Natural History Museum of Utah says it is dark brown with a gray chin and belly in summer and white with black-tipped ears in winter, so its color follows the season. The museum also notes it is common in the Wasatch Range above 8,000 feet.

It is active year-round and mostly after dark, staying hidden in vegetation until sundown and using the same runways again and again. It eats a mix of woody and succulent plants. Females can raise two to five litters a year, from about March into July or August, and the young are weaned after about a month.

Utah DWR groups it with the state's three hares, along with the white-tailed and black-tailed jackrabbits. Hares rest in a shallow depression above ground and have young that are furred and open-eyed at birth, while rabbits use burrows. DWR lists the snowshoe hare as protected wildlife that can be hunted only in set seasons.

Large hind feet and ears; brown in summer, white with black-tipped ears in winter.

Look along forest edges and trails at dusk or dawn above about 8,000 feet in the Wasatch; do not chase hares or pick up young.