The body length of the tolai hare does not exceed 50 cm, and its weight can reach up to 2 kg. This species successfully survives in conditions where other animals would not last a month, including dry deserts and cold highlands. The tolai hare is found throughout Kyrgyzstan, making it difficult not to encounter.
“When Kyrgyz people want to emphasize complete similarity, they say: ‘koendoy okshosh’ — ‘they look alike like hares.’ This proverb could have originated in a society where hares are frequently seen. A hare could always jump out on a person's path, so often that it was hard to distinguish it from the previous one. The tolai hare can endure a lot, but not poaching, which deprives hunters of the joy of a successful hunt,” noted Garshin.
On how to hunt a hare, sportsman hunter Denis Grebenev shared his insights.
“Even if the hare is very frightened, it doesn’t run far. Usually, it makes a circle and returns. This habit is used in hunting with taigans. The hunter stays in the place where he startled the hare and sends the dog on its trail. The dog chases it, and the hare jumps out again at the hunter. However, the tolai hare sometimes doesn’t even make small circles and prefers to just hide. The tracks of a hare in the snow or wet sand are easy to recognize: they are the prints of long hind legs and fat points from the front ones,” he explained.
In Kyrgyzstan, hunting for hares is allowed from October 5, 2019, to January 26, 2020, with a daily limit of 3 individuals, and up to 20 can be harvested in a season.
The myth of the hare's cowardice is not true. One of the gamekeepers from the Kalinin society of hunters witnessed a remarkable struggle.
“I was sitting in the mountains at the edge of a sunny glade in the Min-Tokum gorge (Kara-Balta area). Suddenly, I saw a hare hopping across the glade when a kite (a predatory bird of the hawk family) swooped down on it from above. Instead of running away, the hare began to defend itself. It curled up, jumped, and struck at the kite with its paws. Despite the predator's attempts to catch it, the hare managed to fend off the attack. At the last moment, when the kite attacked again, the hare struck it hard with its paws, causing it to veer off to the side and quickly retreat. The hare sat still for a while and then disappeared into the bushes,” the gamekeeper recounted.
