We happened to see these charming animals before – in vicinity of Lake Sarykamysh and Zengi-baba, where a hare has where to hide. All it has to do is to dive into thicket of reeds or get lost amidst the trunks and branches of saxaul. However, this time we were lucky to see a tolai hare in the mountains in the territory of the Kopetdag Nature Reserve.

The hare that had met few people, not frightened by them, was in no hurry to get away. It ran past us, amongst the tall bushes of blackberries and barberries, stopped and looked around. We froze – the hare was so close that we could see it. Black spots on its ears and paws became clearly visible in scarce grass when it jumped to the side. It turned out that hares live not only in tugay, near rivers, lakes and in the Karakum Desert, but also in the middle mountain belt. Scientists find the tolai hare in the mountains at an altitude of up to 2,500 metres above sea level, and they say that it is larger than the sandy hare.