Spruce Grouse and Snowshoe Hares

     Spruce grouse, a kind of chicken-like bird, and snowshoe hares, which are related to rabbits, live permanently in the coniferous forests of Canada and Alaska.  They range from coast to coast and from Hudson Bay to the northern parts of the northern tier states of the United States.  The hares also live in the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains.  And both eat vegetation in their spruce and pine woods homes.   The grouse spend most of their time in the sheltering evergreen trees, but the hares, of course, are mostly on the ground, usually in the cover of thickets. 
     The handsome male spruce grouse are slate-gray all over with white spots on their chests and bellies.  They also have black throats and a red, bare-skin comb above each eye, which helps impress the lady grouse during the spring mating season.  Females of this species are gray-brown with heavy barring to blend into their surroundings.  Females alone raise the young and are better protected against predators by camouflaged feathering.  In fact, spruce grouse rely so heavily on camouflage that they often don't flush from the ground until almost stepped on by predator or human.  Some of the predators on spruce grouse are golden eagles, lynx and goshawks.  
     Spruce, fir and pine needles are the staple diet for spruce grouse through the year, hence their common name.  During summer, however, they also eat insects, grass, leaves, berries and other vegetation of the season.  But in winter they are restricted to consuming needles, seeds and buds.  They also ingest tiny stones to help grind their food in their stomachs.
     In spring, male spruce grouse raise and fan their tails, puff out their feathers and strut before the females of their kind to put them into the mood for mating.  Each female lays 4 to 7 or more eggs in a grass-lined nest on the ground under a bush, low-growing limb or other shelter.  The chicks hatch fuzzy, camouflaged, wide-eyed and ready to leave their nursery to forage for food.  Within a couple of weeks, although still immature, they are able to fly to avoid predators.              
     Snowshoe hares are well-named because they have large, fur-padded back feet, like snowshoes.  Those enormous feet spread their weight across the snow so they don't sink into it when walking or hopping, which has allowed may hares escape from predators, such as lynx, gray wolves, wolverines, great horned owls, golden eagles and others.  Fur on the feet helps keep them free of frostbite.
     Snowshoe hares are also called varying hares because they are brown in summer for camouflage and white in winter to blend into the background of snow.  Of course, that camouflage also protects them from predators.   
     Each female hare bears about three litters of young a year with two to eight babies in a litter.  She doesn't make a nest, but puts the youngsters in a small depression in the soil.  The offspring are born furry and with their eyes open.  Within a few days they leave their cradle in the ground and forage on vegetation.  But many of them are caught and eaten before they grow up.
     Hares are related to rabbits, but they are not rabbits.  Rabbits are born naked and blind, and spend a couple of weeks in their nurseries in a sheltered place in the ground. 
     In summer, snowshoe hares eat grass, leaves and other succulent vegetation.  But in winter, when all that is not available because it is buried by snow, the hares consume twigs, flower and leaf buds and soft bark on younger trees, sometimes killing those small trees. 
     Spruce grouse and snowshoe hares have much in common, particularly living in coniferous forests in Canada and Alaska.  They both are permanent residents there, eat vegetable foods and kept in check by the same predators.  But they both have ways to protect themselves, including camouflage.  Most of us probably will never see these creatures, but its neat to know they exist.