Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren Bogbaum here one heading off to visit the Mad Hatter and March Hare. In the classic Lewis Carroll story Alice in Wonderland, Alice utters the March Hare will be much the more interesting, and perhaps, as this is May, it won't be raving mad, at least not so mad as it was in March. The concept of the crazy March Hare dates back to at least the start of the hundreds, when English playwright John Heywood wrote
and be as brainless as a March Hare. While hares and rabbits are two distinctly different creatures, the hair is slightly larger with brown tips on its ears of both are known for going a little wild around the start of March. Not all that coincidentally, late February or early March also marks the start of the breeding season for these creatures, and that wild reputation is likely tied to
mating rituals. As winter comes to an end and spring approaches, the male rabbit begins his search for female rabbits to mate with after the long winter dry spell. When he finds a rabbit that's interested, they engage in according ritual that can take many forms, and some rabbits show their interest by running and racing, others leap or hop, and some even take to boxing or fighting. After copulation, the male may stick around for a few hours before he's
off in search of his next conquest. Male rabbits are polygamous, and dominant males will attempt to breed with all willing females on their turf, which can span as much as twenty five acres. In areas with large concentrations of rabbits, there's quite a bit of cording going on. Humans who witnessed these rituals might easily wonder why the rabbits seem to be a little off of leading to the concept in question. Hairs also do their fair share to contribute
to this mad reputation. These docile looking creatures use their powerful front legs to engage one another in rough and tumble boxing matches. While animal experts once believed these matches were mostly between male hairs fighting over female hairs, they now know that unwilling female hairs box overly amorous males to make it clear that they're not interested. As for Alice's mad March hair, in May, two months into breeding season.
He may have had some time to sow his wild oats a bit, but anyone familiar with the story knows his madness was still going strong when Alice met up with them four rabbits and hairs. The wild behavior that begins in March can extend well into the autumn thanks to the animals relatively long breeding season. Today's episode is based on the article do Rabbits really go crazy in March? On how Stuff works dot Com, written by Bambi Turner.
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