Habitat Suitability Index Models: Snowshoe Hare.

The snowshoe hare Lepus americanus is indigenous to boreal forests throughout North America Dolbeer and Clark 1975. Snowshoe hares consume herbaceous vegetation during the growing season and change to a woody diet in the fall and winter Baker et al. 1921 Dodds 1960. Young forests with abundant understory that provide food and cover are preferred habitat Grange 1932. Snowshoe hares exhibit approximate 10-year cycles of abundance and scarcity throughout much of their range, which have been attributed to hare-food interactions Vowles 1972 Bryant 1981a and hare-food-predator interactions Keith 1974 Wolff 1980, 1981.