Brown hare leverets are born fully furred and scattered individually across the landscape, making them vulnerable to agricultural machinery, predation, and well-meaning human intervention.
Hare leveret welfare involves a paradox: the greatest welfare threat to leverets comes partly from human intervention in cases where young animals are assumed to be abandoned and in need of rescue. The scattered brooding strategy of hares — each leveret hidden separately and visited briefly — looks like abandonment to unfamiliar observers. Well-intentioned collection of apparently abandoned leverets removes them from their mother's care, imposes handling stress, and reduces survival probability. True welfare interventions are needed when leverets are injured or genuinely orphaned — the difference between these situations requires knowledge and restraint.