White-tailed Jackrabbit

Question
Dear Dana,

As I was taking my garbage out after dinner today, I noticed a commotion
next to a pine tree in my parking lot. Several magpies and a crow were
attacking a rather small jackrabbit that was out in the open snow, pecking it
repeatedly on the head and dragging it around. The rabbit was squealing and
fighting back, rearing up on it's hind legs to paw at it's attackers, but clearly
losing. Another small jackrabbit was hopping away from the scene towards a
daycare centre (normally full of other small predators . . .), with more birds
looking on interestedly and approaching.

I walked towards the birds to scare them off the first hare, but they only
moved away temporarily. The second hare kept uncoordinated-ly moving
around in the 6"-deep snow, away from the shelter of the tree (which had an
adult hare-sized, snow-free depression under some low branches that I
assume was a temporary "nest" because it had a few hare tracks and
droppings around it).

I put out the trash and came back five minutes later, not having been able to
get a hold of anybody at a wildlife rehab centre to ask for advice. When I got
back the first hare had been ripped apart by the magpies, which were
consuming it as I watched, and the second hare was under assault from three
more birds. Magpies have to eat too, I know, but they have plenty of garbage
to eat on our university campus rather than baby bunnies, so I walked up to
the hare and picked it up. It made a single half-hearted squeal and then was
quiet, with it's eyes half-closed. It appeared to have no major injuries but it
was shivering (from shock?).

I took the hare inside my apartment and put it in a towel-lined box in the
bathtub for a few hours. For the first half an hour it sat it a corner under a
half-a-shoebox shivering, and then it came out and investigated its box
pretty thoroughly (had to confirm three times that the box had four corners)
and was quite alert. I turned the lights off and it went quiet after a while.
After the sun had mostly set and the magpies had left for the night, I took
the hare back outside and placed it back in its nest. There were two adult
hares <30m from the nest, which I assume is not a bad thing? Do adult hares
get aggressive towards young hares that are not their own?

My question is, did I do the right thing? By this time I had read online about
their weak immune system so I washed up with antibiotic soap before picking
it up in a towel to release it, but I didn't know that the first time. What's the
probability of it's immune system being compromised by handling? The
towels were freshly laundered and unused. I had placed a small water dish in
it's box at first, but after the hare got itself wet within two minutes I took the
dish out. The hare did groom itself immediately, and was dry when I released
it, so hopefully it won't get hypothermia -- it's still cold here!

The body of the sibling hare was entirely consumed/carried away, but I'm
concerned that the blood in the snow <10m from the nest will attract more
predators, and so might my tracks leading to and from the nest. Assuming
the mother comes back, will she move the surviving infant? Might she have
more offspring stashed in other locations, and how far away would they be?
Is it normal for a mother hare to go so far from her infants during the day
that she can't hear their distress calls (and the racket from the magpies!)? Will
the temperature shock -- going from -5 degrees C outside, to 20 degrees
inside my apartment, back to -5 (and colder through the night) harm the
little hare? And, will the lack of a sibling to share body heat with at night be a
problem? e.g. Do very young hares normally sleep alone in very cold
temperatures.

Thanks very much, and sorry for the barrage of questions but I'm worried
about the little guy. I released him because I figured he'd have a better
chance that way than in a rehab centre, as he's not injured that I can tell, but
being alone on a cold night seems pretty tough for a small hare. Plus I feel
guilty about not helping his sibling -- and guilty that I stole a meal from the
magpies! Such a conundrum!

-Sarah

Answer
Dear Sarah,

I think you did the right thing.  As you say, the magpies were not wanting for food.  And you were much kinder to those vicious birds than I would have been.  I won't go into detail.  But when it comes to hares, I have clear emotional favorites, and those birds would not have been very happy with me.

Mother hares don't stay near their young when not feeding, so as not to attract predators.  I guess it didn't work for this one, but it's likely the one of the two adults you saw was the mother.  I hope so.  I suppose it's possible that the mother was killed, and the reason the babies were wandering and visible to predators was that they got hungry and were trying to find her.  Usually baby hares stay very still during the day, and don't wander.  This is their primary defense.

If you see the baby wandering, and he's very small and uncoordinated, I might suspect he doesn't have a mother.  If his belly is small and shrunken, that would be further evidence.  And if that's the case, then he might be safer with a trustworthy wildlife rehabber (some will just feed baby squirrels and rabbits to their predatory rehabs; these people should have their licenses revoked).  

White-tailed jackrabbits are evolved to withstand cold, so I doubt that the baby will have a problem with that.  And the babies usually do not nest together, so the body warmth might not be a problem, either.

I wish I could tell you more, but all I can say is that I think you did the right thing by saving the baby, and I wish you could have saved the other.  I guess Nature just has its way.

Take care, and I hope that your little fellow makes it to adulthood.  Life is tough for little hares.

Dana