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Arctic hare
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==Feeding== The Arctic hare is a [[herbivore]], specifically a [[folivore]].<ref name=":72">{{Cite web|last=Betzler|first=Brooke|title=Lepus arcticus (Arctic hare)|url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Lepus_arcticus/|access-date=2021-04-08|website=Animal Diversity Web|language=en}}</ref> Arctic hares feed primarily on [[woody plant]]s, with [[arctic willow]] constituting 95% of their diet year-round.<ref name=":72"/> Arctic hares predominantly consume [[saxifrage]], [[crowberry]], and [[dwarf willow]], but can also eat a variety of other foods, including [[lichen]]s and [[moss]]es, blooms, other species' leaves, twigs, and roots, [[mountain sorrel]] and [[macroalgae]] (seaweed).<ref name=":72"/><ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last1=Best|first1=Troy L.|last2=Henry|first2=Travis Hill|date=1994-06-02|title=Lepus arcticus|url=https://academic.oup.com/mspecies/article-lookup/doi/10.2307/3504088|journal=Mammalian Species|issue=457|pages=1–9|doi=10.2307/3504088|jstor=3504088|s2cid=253989268 }}</ref> Arctic hare diets are more diverse in summer.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Larter|first=Nicholas C.|date=July–September 1999|title=Seasonal changes in arctic hare, Lepus arcticus, diet composition and differential digestibility.|journal=Canadian Field-Naturalist|volume=113|issue=3 |pages=481–486|doi=10.5962/p.358616 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Although previously believed to still be primarily willow, [[Dryas (plant)|dryas]], and [[grass]]es, recent studies show that their diet becomes dominated by legumes, constituting 70% of their diet in the summer.<ref name=":72"/><ref name=":6" /> Arctic hares have been reported to occasionally eat meat, including fish and the stomach contents of eviscerated [[caribou]].<ref name=":72"/> They eat snow to get water.<ref name=":72"/>
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