Snowshoe hares experience dramatic 10-year population cycles driven by predator-prey dynamics, with welfare implications for individual hares during both population peaks and crashes.
Snowshoe hares living through population crashes experience chronic predator-driven stress that has measurable physiological consequences — elevated cortisol, reduced body condition, and impaired reproduction. The most remarkable aspect is that maternal stress is transmitted to offspring through developmental programming, creating multiple generations of heightened anxiety in response to predation pressure. While population cycles are natural, the welfare of individual hares at population lows involves genuine and prolonged suffering that the ecological framework does not diminish.