It has been a long held belief that when you see hares fighting in a field it is two males engaged in a competition of prowess. This is however not the case. It has recently been discovered that more often than not it is males & females fighting each other. It has been suggested the female is testing the fitness of the male before she decides to have him as her mate, and if she doesn't like him, or if she feels she isn't ready to mate, boxing his ears is a good way of telling him to clear off!
Dun rockets
dash through the tillage,
black tipped ears
cruising the furrow tops,
fuzzy dorsals
on land locked sharks.
There!
I see two.
No! Three!
Wait! Five!
A husk of leapers
and tumblers,
their mighty hearts
accelerate them into ever
increasing concentric tracks
before collapsing
recklessly into
a tangle of whiskers and limbs.
No blows land,
the time’s not yet,
but lepus’ dance of augury
bids pugilists,
both he & she,
acquiesce to the vernal charge
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