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There is a need to split hairs when it comes to identifying rabbits from hares (pun intended, by all means). We urge you to keep your hair on as we guide you through the not so subtle differences which sets rabbits and hares apart. Unfortunately, chomping down on carrots and greeting people with the classic “Ehhh, what’s up Doc?” prior to going around creating Loki-level havoc is not one of these differences. 

The main point is to know that there are no wild rabbits in Sri Lanka. Those cuddly fluffballs you croon over and whisper sweet nothings to at pet shops and farms, are domesticated breeds. What we do have, stomping about in ever prescient and palpable anxiousness and nervousness that would drive a therapist up the wall, are wild hares.

Black-naped hare ©N. A. Naseer / http://www.nilgirimarten.com
Common Hare – ©Diego Delso / delso.photo / License CC BY-SA

Hares are comparatively bigger and leaner than rabbits (size can not be a reliable metric as there are pet rabbits the size of IKEA coffee tables) and generally tend to have longer ears and stronger legs. Hares can run real fast because they inhabit open spaces (That’s why the fable is about the tortoise and the hare and not about the rabbit). 

©notesonzoology.com

Hares are mainly nocturnal (though it is not uncommon to see them during daylight hours) and during the day they usually keep a low profile using their fur coats to blend in really well with their surroundings. They also make sure to make little to no sound unless injured, and have been observed to communicate with other hares by drumming their feet on the ground. Like their name of the subspecies that’s found in Sri Lanka implies, the back of their necks (nape) are black. When they lie down and make a loaf, the nape becomes not that visible.

Unlike rabbits who live in underground “warrens”, hares have a sort of nest made of a dry bed of coarse grass called a “form”. These forms often expose hares to nearby predators, so they have to be ever vigilant (which explains their constant neurotic state that makes Courage the Cowardly Dog look sane).

A hare’s form – ©Des Colhoun / geograph.org.uk
Rabbit warrens – ©Chris Eilbeck / geograph.org.uk

The diet of black-naped hares mainly comprises grasses, leaves, herbs, fruit and seeds. They also have the habit of performing coprophagy, a wonderful word derived from the Greek copros, “feces” and phagein, “to eat”… Basically, they eat their own poop. Why? Well it’s certainly not because one hare took something another angry hare said, quite literally! They engage in coprophagy because their stomachs aren’t capable of  digesting most of the plant material they ingest. So, by literally eating their own feces, they are able to absorb the much needed nutrients from the ingested plant materials, which were not absorbed the first time around. 

We all learned in our primary school days about how much the “Haawaa / හාවා” (as it is called in Sinhala, also a blanket term for both rabbits and hares in Sri Lanka) loves to eat the three-flower beggarweed (Grona triflora) or “Undupiyaliya / උඳුපියලිය”. Actually there is no recorded evidence that it prefers to gorge on this plant like Garfield loves lasagna. Also, many an Asian folklore states that there is a rabbit on the moon. This is a myth that  originated in China and spread to other Asian cultures, while Europeans believe that there is a man on the moon, who was banished there for some crime.

Hare or Man? ©Zeimusu / Wikimedia Commons
Three-flower beggarweed ©Dinesh Valke / Ankuca-pati

Hares are solitary animals and prefer to stay that way unless they are rearing their young. They are fecund, which means that they can give birth to a large litter at one time, which gave rise to the expression “breeding like rabbits” (although in this case it should be hares). Newborn hares are called “leverets.” Leverets are born precocial (which means that a newborn is able to feed itself and move independently, immediately after birth) and with a full coat of fur. This can be construed as an evolutionary adaptation to the fact that their “forms” offer next to no protection, as opposed to the “warrens” (talk about leverets having evolutionary leverage).

Leverets ©Autumnalis / Wikimedia Commons

They have an island wide spread and so far the main threats they face are habitat destruction and poaching, where the latter has become the most prominent threat. Makeshift snares set up to catch hares can end up costing the life of other animals as well, as snares do not discriminate. They fulfill the role that nature has bestowed on them, and it’s up to us to raise awareness, ensuring their safety and freedom for days to come.

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Pied kingfishers (Ceryle rudis) are a minimalist’s wet dream. They pack up so much suave and swag for a bird with a two-tone (which is what pied means, bi-colored and not getting a pie thrown in your face) color palette, it’s just ridiculous. They are that beautiful. Out of the seven species of kingfisher found in Sri Lanka, they are the third most common (more or less) which is the same for their worldwide distribution where they are found from sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia from Turkey to India to China. Apart from their large distribution, they tend to prefer a more permanent home. They do migrate short distances depending on seasons but do not undertake continent-spanning migrations like most birds.

They have no need to hunt on land as their prey is entirely or mostly aquatic (small fish, crustaceans, aquatic insects, small frogs, etc). So, like hummingbirds, they have become adept at hovering above a stationary point and when you look at videos of them hovering, you can clearly see that only their wings move and the head is motionless and the body is positioned at a roughly 45-degree angle to the water surface. The wings move in a figure-eight position (like the infinity symbol) so they can create the lift they need to be airborne and their wings move at a rate of 10 movements per second! 

Pied Fisher exiting the water with a fish. Photograph by Anjallee Prabhakaran.

This high energy output makes them voracious eaters and they need to eat approximately 50% of their body weight, every day, to survive. They can cover large bodies of water without the constant need for a perch close by because of their amazing hovering skills (this is called “aerial perching”). They hover over the waterline, sometimes fifty feet up and once they lock down their prey (they have this amazing ability to compensate for the effects of refraction caused by water and pinpoint their prey exactly), they dive beak first (like a guided missile) and snatch their prey and gulp it down mid-flight or would take it to the perch to stun it before gulping head first (The reason why birds swallow a fish head first is because that way, the fish scales won’t irritate their insides while it travels down to the stomach).

When they would finally perch on a nearby branch, they would bob their heads up and down and start gossiping with the neighbors about the day (gets as loud as the manning market on a Saturday noon). They are very gregarious (loves company) and would hang out in small groups. Also, it is not unlikely to see large roosts at night. Males and females look alike but easy to tell them apart because of the bands on their chests. Males have a thick band on top and a thin one below and females only have one thick band which is sometimes broken down in the middle.

Photographs by Sayuru Imesh.

Like their common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) cousins, pied kingfishers make their nests on earthy banks closer to a water source. Both sexes put their backs (and beaks) into making the tunnel and it usually measures about 1m in length. Then the female lays about four to 5 eggs and the male helps with the incubation and the feeding of the female throughout the whole process. Because of their sociable nature, other members of the group would willingly help parents to look after their chicks (which is called cooperative breeding). Up to four “nannies” would volunteer their services and usually, the nannies in question are adults who failed to raise their own chicks or the parent’s adult kids from a previous litter. Guess it is family first for these critters (Somewhere, Dom Toretto sheds a tear).

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I have this one memory of which I am absolutely fond of. When I was about 8 or 9, I got to fly a kite on a brilliantly sunny, perfectly windy August day, in the middle of a recently threshed field of paddy. Just beautiful scenery all throughout, there I was so full of bliss and giddy as a cat on catnip. That’s the kind of overall feeling which is accompanied whenever I hear the word “kites”. I’m sure most of you have very fond memories of your own when it comes to “kiting” as it combines three things which are irresistible to us, (1) the sensation of flying, (2) the feeling of being in control, and (3) a month of holidays – kite season in Sri Lanka falls in August, just when the school holidays start and during the peak of the South-Eastern monsoon season, which brings sweeping winds into the country.

Gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, doesn’t it? I’m sure it is intensified by the restrictions placed due to the current covid situation. 

Well in this seemingly innocent hobby that just sparks joy to the point it could make Marie Kondo high, there is a gruesome side, which you might be knowingly or unknowingly contributing to. The crime (yes, it is a crime in a sense when you consider the collateral damage) is leaving nylon and other synthetic-fiber strings – which are used to fly kites – hanging nearly everywhere to the point it feels like walking through a giant spider web of death. Generally, if we are aware of our surroundings we can avoid getting injured by these renegade strings, but there is news about people getting severely injured, some even losing their lives because a string severed a main artery. Just last month (July 2021), a mother and her year and a half old child paid with their lives because a kite string got entangled in the bike they were traveling which caused a roadside accident. If that is the case for us humans, can you even begin to comprehend the effect these strings have on animals, most noticeably on birds as these discarded strings are found mostly on power lines, trees, and other places of elevation where birds choose to roost. 

Those of you, including me, know how deep these synthetic strings can cut if you mishandle them and if tightly wound around anything, they are nearly impossible to break without the aid of a sharp object. Normally, it takes around approximately 15 pounds of force to break a single strand of nylon string, which means you have to yank the ends with considerable force to break it, and if you are not safe (like wearing gloves), as mentioned previously they could end up seriously injuring you. The same can not be said to the majority of animals that get caught as most of them do not have the required physical structure to exert the minimum amount of force needed to break these strings. The more they struggle, the more the strings end up cutting deep like a torture device. Speaking of torture, this is exactly how a snare operates. When an animal is caught in a snare, the more it struggles to be free, the more the snare cuts into the animal which ends with the animal dying a gory and gruesome death. 

I did some digging to see what kind of synthetic fiber strings are promoted online and most turned out to be Nylon but there were some local online vendors who were promoting Kevlar strings! That is even worse! It is not popular as it is quite expensive when compared to Nylon, but Kevlar based strings are four times as strong as Nylon strings and even more dangerous to be handled inappropriately as it can and will cut you to the bone – if the word Kevlar sounds familiar, it is because Kevlar is used to make bulletproof vests – Now I hope that gives you an idea on how strong these things are! If that’s what entails a human being, imagine what it translates to a lightweight, slender creature like a bird who is caught in a death trap like this. The more it struggles to escape, the more it cuts, which could lead to a horrible death by strangulation, starvation (because it is trapped in one place), or by excessive bleeding (caused by deep lacerations). 

Purple swamphen tangled in kite string at the Diyasaru Park. Video by Anya Ratnayaka.

Our neighbors to the north have a brand of Chinese-made string called “manjha” which is sometimes coated with glass or steel to make it extra durable (Yeah you read that right! A thin lining of glass and steel!). Thankfully the Indian Government banned the product in 2017 but this has not ended activists having to rescue thousands of birds and other animals, who end up strung up like trussed chicken, waiting for a painful and humiliating death. Our stance and justification methods on matters such as these can be expressed from that one lyric from the popular Gypsies song, “Though it happens in India, it doesn’t happen in Sri Lanka / ඉන්දියාවේ එහෙම උනත් ලංකාවේ එහෙම වෙන්නේ නෑ” which is an extremely dangerous mentality to be harboring as the team at Urban Fishing Cat recently rescued a Purple Heron which was suffering for three days, entangled in a mess of strings.

If you are reading this and feeling a little defensive, remember that we are not trying to force you to give up flying kites, we are also not condemning or shaming those who do fly kites, and we are definitely not preaching extreme ideals over a beloved hobby. 

Instead, we are just pleading that you pick up after you are done! If your kite string gets caught up somewhere if you can remove it, remove it – mind you, we do not encourage putting yourself in danger if the string is stuck somewhere unsafe – If it is stuck somewhere inaccessible but you can see it, get help from someone and try your best to get it down. If you aren’t a kite flyer, but you happen to see strings hanging off trees, pull them down and dispose of them accordingly (Put it for recycling). 

By doing simple things such as these, an innocent life will be spared to soar free or roam unharmed for at least another day and you will be left with a huge sense of fulfillment as you made the effort to do the right thing. That’s what matters at the end, doesn’t it, doing the right thing?