Early-morning fisticuffs for March hares

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk Boxing hares were once thought to be males competing for females, but it is usually a female defending herself from an amorous male

It's early, the sun has only just risen, yet already I can hear the drone of the bypass a few miles away as the rush hour traffic picks up. Every part of me is alert and awake. I can't afford to lose focus for a moment for the horse I am on is fresh and quivering with energy.

Choosing our way carefully across the tussocky meadow I allow him to pick up into a trot. I breathe in the morning air and then, less than a metre from us, a rich brown, almost reddish, shape breaks for cover. We had all but stumbled on a resting brown hare (Lepus europaeus), crouched low and nearly invisible in its form. It darts off, strong back legs propelling it up the gentle slope.