How big is a hare and how long is its stride?

[Fishkeeper]

I'm aware hares aren't predators, but this seems to be the section that has all the people who live in rural areas.

I'm trying to figure out how fast a giant hare in a piece of fiction could run. To at least handwave the accuracy on that, I need stride length and body size on a regular hare.
If you stretch a hare out with its hindlegs behind it and its forelegs in front, how long is it from pawtip to pawtip? Not a rabbit, a hare. Also, how long a stride do they take at top speed?

 

[Kessel23]

Well I don't have hares around here but I do have domestic rabbits, I know you did not ask for those but at least you will know that a hare has a longer stride than 6ft at top speed on solid ground. Last winter I found some rabbit tracks from my domestic escaped rabbits in a foot of snow, I layed down between the tracks and the length was my height, so 6ft. I wonder what he was running from. Sorry I don't have any experience with hares, idk if anyone can give you exact speed or stride length at top speed. I think the best most members can do is a google search for this topic. The stride one is probably possible just from living around them and getting curious when you find a set of tracks with a wide gap between them but idk how you would "get curious" and measure one's speed.

 

[Fishkeeper]

That's really impressive! Rabbits are, what, two feet long stretched out? Maybe a bit more? I've been looking at videos of them on youtube, but rabbits are too small and move too fast, it's harder to count strides and estimate jump length on them even when they do go in a straight line.
I know some species of hares can hit 35mph, which is crazy for how small they are. Probably they've been tracked with radar guns (which do work on things that small) by scientists to get that number.
You can also count how many strides an animal takes in 10 seconds, multiply that by the appropriate magnifiers and by number of feet in a stride, and get its speed.

I figure I can take the length of an average hare's body and compare that to its stride length. Then I can figure out an appropriate number of strides per second for a giant hare, and I can use those numbers to get a reasonable speed.
I used it awhile ago to figure out roughly how large a Warg (the giant wolves from Lord of the Rings) could potentially go. I like math and logic in my fantasy biology. Also good for things like "how much meat would a canid this big need to eat".

 

[WthrLady]

A hare can be huge! 2 foot long when it's not spread out running or hopping. 5 foot or more when it really gets going

 

[Jammerz]

I killed a jackrabbit last week that was 14 pounds and about 3 feet long. Ears were 13" long. I couldn't believe it. Jackrabbits are hares...

 

[Fishkeeper]

All right, I can work with that.
If a jackrabbit runs at 35mph, that's 184,800 feet per hour. That makes 3080 feet per minute, so 51.4 feet per second. Which is really impressive, but the math checks out- 35mph times feet in a mile is feet per hour. Divide that by sixty for feet per minute, and that again by sixty for feet per second.
I found a video of a hare running full tilt (chased by wolves), and it took about 4 strides per second. 51.4/4 is 12.8, so... evidently a hare running at full speed can cover nearly 13 feet in a stride. That seems like an absurd number, but the math checks out, at least logically.

 

[Jammerz]

I would say that a jackrabbit running full out can easily cover 12 feet in a stride.

 

[Fishkeeper]

All right, that's good to know. Thanks.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

This says jack rabbit stride up to 20ft and Snowshoe hare up to 10ft

From this book:

 

[PirateGirl]

I have had a snowshoe hare and/or jackrabbit keep pace along side my car about 20mph.