Article content continued

He always makes sure he’s dealing with a true orphan; if someone removes a baby from a park or backyard, Polson tries to return it to the same spot so its mother can find it. Jackrabbits — which are actually hares, not rabbits — leave their young in different locations to throw predators off, and return to feed them throughout the day, he said.

Sometimes the babies get really spread out — Polson has rescued hares from a Shoppers Drug Mart and recently, the Midtown Plaza. He’s not sure how they got there, but said it could be connected to what he sees as an influx of urban hares. While jackrabbits have lived in parks and neighbourhoods for years, Polson is noticing more of them in both residential and downtown Saskatoon.

Photo by Michelle Berg/Saskatoon StarPhoenix

“This is really recent, you’re just seeing it happen before your eyes. This is the first year that it really struck me that there’s just jackrabbits everywhere.”

Polson said it all comes down to adaptation. There’s plenty of grass for wild hares to eat, combined with a lack of predators, making it easy for them to survive in an urban climate. Even a coyote that’s wandered into the city would struggle to capture a hare on its own, he notes.

Snowshoe hares are the other, less-common urban-dwelling hare and are more likely than jackrabbits to nibble on garden vegetables and fruit trees, according to Polson.

“I certainly haven’t heard many people complain about jackrabbits eating their gardens and stuff because their diet is a little more varied,” he said, adding he doesn’t see a downside to having more hares around.

Jeff Boone, the city’s pest management supervisor, said his department receives between 10 and 20 hare-related complaints every year, and numbers have been rising. Boone said the city got 17 calls last year compared to 13 in 2014 and only seven in 2013.

“It’s still a relatively small number, but the number of calls are up and people are also reporting they see lots of rabbits in the city now,” he said.

Most complaints are about damage to homeowner’s plants or city trees. Boone said in certain areas, the city will protect tree trunks from hungry hares. He advises homeowners to fence off their gardens or apply certain repellents to woody vegetation.

Since there’s no civic monitoring program, Boone said it’s impossible to know if the hare population is actually increasing.

“Maybe it’s just rabbits acting very differently in cities than they would elsewhere, or people are seeing them more frequently so they report it,” he said.

Jackrabbits typically doze during the day in shallow nests and become more active at night, Polson said. Which means as darkness falls and downtown Saskatoon gets quiet, it becomes the perfect place for hares to hop.