Lunar
aka ‘the loony’
Lunar is a British brown hare who arrived here with her two siblings. Their mother had been shot by a gamekeeper, who after shooting her realised that she was pregnant. Showing some compassion, she cut open the mother to save the babies and promptly brought them here.
It was quite a shock as we had never hand-reared any mammals before and it seemed a daunting task - the chances of them surviving seemed very small, but they deserved a chance at least. The hares were syringe-fed goat’s milk with a tiny amount of double cream and a single drop of probiotic yoghurt drink. This was given three times a day.
Sadly, a week after being brought in, the smallest hare died, leaving Lunar and her brother.
We continued feeding the goat’s milk, but changed the syringe for a bottle as their appetites grew. At this point, they were also eating small amounts of hay and the babies were already very tame as they had never had any contact with the outside world.
A couple of days after they were weaned, Lunar’s brother unexpectedly passed away after a tummy upset. By this time, Lunar was very tame indeed and was following me around like a dog. After talking to the vet, it was decided that she would never be suitable for release due to her being strongly imprinted.
Lunar lives in a large pen outside where she has grass to graze and shelter against the elements. She loves her dried fruit and yoghurt drops which she gets as a treat every day.
She is not afraid of much and once scared us to death when a goshawk came down, probably hoping to make a meal of her, and she sat there grazing, completely unphased by the intrusion. Luckily, her pen has a mesh roof! We are not sure where the bird came from, and we’ve not seen it since. It probably died of shame!
Lunar continues to entertain us with her “mad” antics, running about and twisting in the air, and she still follows me, especially if it is her tea-time!
Hand-rearing Lunar and her siblings was a great experience for us and we have learnt a lot. Since rearing her, I have also hand-reared five orphaned rabbit kittens. Two sadly died, but the remaining three were sucessfully released back into the wild.