Early morning walking to work, I took a shortcut over a highway. Saw a hare that stopped, looked both ways, and then crossed when the road was clear. It got to the elevated section between the lanes (not sure what this is called in English), stopped, looked both ways, and then continued when the road was clear.
You mean on account of having their eyes on the sides of their heads rather than in front?
They do, and I honestly don’t know how their vision works, but I would guess that they can turn their eyeballs to the front to maybe get some depth perception? At least that’s what it looked like to me with this hare. It was a really long, straight road where you could see 1 km or more in both directions, and the hare was being really careful waiting until the road was completely clear in both directions.
It likely also relied a lot on directional hearing, but really was turning its head which I don’t think they usually do, since they can easily turn their ears independently.
Early morning walking to work, I took a shortcut over a highway. Saw a hare that stopped, looked both ways, and then crossed when the road was clear. It got to the elevated section between the lanes (not sure what this is called in English), stopped, looked both ways, and then continued when the road was clear.
The elevated part is called an island in Australia, or if it is protected it’s a pedestrian refuge
Aren’t hares always looking both ways?
You mean on account of having their eyes on the sides of their heads rather than in front?
They do, and I honestly don’t know how their vision works, but I would guess that they can turn their eyeballs to the front to maybe get some depth perception? At least that’s what it looked like to me with this hare. It was a really long, straight road where you could see 1 km or more in both directions, and the hare was being really careful waiting until the road was completely clear in both directions.
It likely also relied a lot on directional hearing, but really was turning its head which I don’t think they usually do, since they can easily turn their ears independently.