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The animal on the cover of High Performance Images is a brown hare (Lepus europaeus). It is part of the Leporidae family and can be found in Europe and parts of central and western Asia. It is also known as the European hare.

As with deer, male brown hares are known as bucks and females as does. Both males and females look alike, with body mass ranging between 5.5 and 15 pounds. They are larger than the rabbits they often get confused with, and have head and body lengths between 19 and 30 inches. Another giveaway that they’re hares and not rabbits are the black tips on their ears and tails (the ears have an average length of about 4 inches). They are a rustic brown color on their backs and shoulders, with white undersides. In the winter, areas of the head and base of the ears develop white areas as well.

Brown hares are herbivores and eat various grasses and shrubs. With agriculture taking over much of their habitat, though, they are also known to eat farm crops in their foraging groups. In the winter season when grass and shrubs are bare, they will eat the bark of shrubs and buds of fruit trees. They also resort to eating their own pellet feces in order to retain protein and vitamins.

Breeding season for brown hares lasts for more than half the year, from January until August, but it isn’t until March and April that females are able to carry more than one fetus to term. Once breeding is in full swing, females will carry around three or more fetuses, with gestation lasting up to 42 days. Females will give birth two to three times per year on average.

Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.

The cover image is from British Quadrupeds. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.