\n The dramatic performance sees adult animals standing upright in open fields embroiled in what looks to all intents and purposes like a ‘boxing’ match.\n<\/p>\n
\n Take that! The photos were taken near Wool (Image: Kevin Evans)\n<\/p>\n
\n For those lucky enough to witness it, the behaviour is typically observed during the hares’ breeding season, usually peaking in March – hence the expression, as “mad as a March hare”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The breeding season however runs through from February to September.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kevin, who said he had taken up wildlife photography just four months ago, came across the spectacle this month in a field outside Wool on an evening walk after work.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was between 6.30pm and 7pm and he had been actually been out looking for deers, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I saw two hares. They were quite far apart so I thought I’d sit and watch,” said the 41-year-old, from Broadmayne, who works as a crane operator at Pulham Steels Ltd.\n<\/p>\n
\n A common misconception is that it’s two males (Image: Kevin Evans)\n<\/p>\n
\n “They were chasing each other and I thought it could happen and it did. I ended up with about 150 photos that I had to sift through when I got home but it’s over quite quick. It lasted about 30\/40 seconds.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Kevin, who was “crouched behind a fence”, said he had been “amazed” by the scene\n<\/p>\n
\n “I was straight on the phone telling everyone – my friends, my other half,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n A common misconception is that it is two males embroiled in the ‘battle’ but Kevin explained that was not the case.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s not what people think. It’s not two males. It’s the female fending off the male because she has had enough.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The behaviour can go on for weeks, according to research (Image: Kevin Evans)\n<\/p>\n
\n Kevin said he was introduced to photographing wildlife by his 13-year old son, who has been pursuing the pastime with his granddad for five or six years.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Now, I’m absolutely obsessed,” said Kevin, who said he started by buying a cheap camera and had now upgraded his equipment.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s a really good hobby,” he said, adding that he had spent three months taking pictures of kingfishers.\n<\/p>\n
\n For the boxing hare shots, he said he used a Canon R7 Mirrorless camera and a Sigma lens. He does not edit his pictures, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hare today – gone tomorrow? (Image: Kevin Evans)\n<\/p>\n
\n Research has reportedly shown that the vast majority of these ‘boxing’ encounters are initiated by a female hare, or doe, who is ending off an overly persistent male, or buck. It can even go on for several weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is thought to be because the doe is not yet ready to mate or may be testing the male.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kevin took up photography four months ago and came across the hares on an evening walk (Image: Kevin Evans)\n<\/p>\n
\n More of Kevin’s pictures can be seen on his Facebook page Kevin Evans (Evans Photography).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dramatic performance sees adult animals standing upright in open fields embroiled in what looks to all intents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-631033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}