Arctic hares face threats from a surprisingly short list of predators, but the ones they do face are relentless. Living in one of the harshest environments on Earth limits the number of animals capable of hunting them, yet predation accounts for 85 to 100% of arctic hare deaths depending on the region and year.
Mammalian Predators
The arctic fox is the most consistent mammalian threat to arctic hares across the High Arctic. Unlike seasonal migrants, arctic foxes live in the same tundra habitat year-round and actively hunt hares in every season. Wolves also prey on arctic hares, though hares typically make up a smaller portion of their diet compared to larger prey like caribou and muskoxen. In areas where their ranges overlap, ermines (also called stoats) target younger, smaller hares and leverets.
The Canadian lynx is the dominant predator of hares in boreal forest regions further south. Lynx populations are so tightly linked to hare numbers that the two species follow a famous boom-and-bust cycle lasting 8 to 11 years. When hare populations peak, lynx thrive and multiply. As predation pressure mounts, hare numbers crash, and lynx populations follow one to two years later. This cycle repeats across most of the boreal forest and is one of the best-documented predator-prey relationships in ecology.
Birds of Prey
Snowy owls are among the most important avian predators of arctic hares. Diet analysis from High Arctic research sites found that hares made up roughly 6% of snowy owl prey items across pooled samples, with hares appearing in owl diets at nearly every study location. That percentage may sound small, but snowy owls consume enormous quantities of prey, and hares represent a significant caloric contribution when they’re caught.
Gyrfalcons, the largest falcon species in the world, also hunt arctic hares. These birds are powerful enough to take down prey their own size and are resident or semi-resident in arctic regions. While direct diet data from gyrfalcons is harder to collect, they are well-documented hare predators. In some areas, long-tailed skuas and parasitic skuas will scavenge or prey on hare leverets as well.
Why Leverets Are Especially Vulnerable
Young hares face higher predation risk than adults for several overlapping reasons. Juveniles are smaller, slower, and less experienced at detecting and evading predators. When young hares begin dispersing from their birth areas in the fall, they move through unfamiliar terrain with less protective cover, which exposes them to both ground and aerial hunters. Research on closely related hare species has shown that the introduction of juveniles into a population reliably coincides with drops in overall survival rates. Predation during this dispersal period, combined with poor camouflage timing in young animals, makes the first few months of life the most dangerous.
How Arctic Hares Avoid Predators
Speed is the arctic hare’s primary defense. They can run up to 40 miles per hour, making them one of the fastest animals in the Arctic. When startled, they bound away in a zigzag pattern that makes it difficult for both foxes and birds to close the distance. In deep snow, their large hind feet act like snowshoes, giving them a mobility advantage over heavier predators that sink with each step.
Their seasonal coat change is equally critical. Arctic hares in most of their range turn white in winter and shift to brown or gray in summer, matching the landscape to avoid detection by visually hunting predators. This color change is triggered by day length rather than temperature or snowfall. In northern populations closest to the pole, hares stay white year-round because snow cover is nearly permanent.
The timing of this molt matters enormously. Research published in PNAS found that hares have some ability to adjust the speed of their spring white-to-brown molt based on conditions, but they cannot change when the molt starts or how fast they turn white again in fall. That inflexibility creates a growing problem: as snow seasons shorten due to climate change, white hares increasingly find themselves standing on brown, snowless ground. This camouflage mismatch makes them far more visible to predators. Projections suggest the number of days hares spend mismatched against their background could increase four to eightfold by the end of the century if their molt timing doesn’t evolve to keep pace.
Group Behavior as a Defense
Arctic hares are unusual among hare species in that they sometimes gather in large groups, occasionally numbering in the dozens or even hundreds. These aggregations are most common in open tundra where individual hiding spots are scarce. Grouping provides a “many eyes” advantage: with more hares scanning for threats, each individual can spend more time feeding and less time watching for predators. When a threat appears, the group scatters in multiple directions, making it harder for a predator to single out and track one target.
This flocking behavior is especially pronounced in winter, when food is limited and hares dig through snow to reach vegetation. Staying in groups during these exposed feeding periods reduces the odds that any one hare becomes a meal.