New rules for brown hare management drawn up by shooting lobby - Ignoring conservation issues

Government gives green light to shooters & landowners to decide future protection of hares in England

April 2013. A new code of practice for the management of brown hare populations in England has been published. The new code has been written by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). It is supported by the Tenant Farmers' Association, the National Gamekeepers' Organisation, the Moorland Association, the Country Land and Business Association and the Countryside Alliance.

Wildlife organisations have reacted with shock and frustration after guidelines for the management - and shooting - of hares were published without any discussion of a potential ‘close-season'. A Code of Practice for brown hare management in England has been drawn up by the British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC), but a coalition of animal welfare groups claim that it fails to give hares even the minimal protection given to other ‘game' species.

Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
Mike Swan, head of education at the GWCT, said: "The GWCT has been at the forefront of research on hares for over 20 years and managed to achieve a ten-fold population increase on its own research farm over three years. We welcome this new code for brown hare management. The hare is a wonderful animal and this advice reconciles the needs of hare conservation and crop protection in a pragmatic, humane and flexible way."

Glynn Evans, BASC's head of game and gamekeeping, said: "Everyone wants to see a thriving hare population but in areas where conservation and conditions favour hares, they can become a threat to the production of food. This code sets out practical advice for humane control."

Unsustainable hunting
Care for the Wild, the Humane Society International, Blue Hare, and the Hare Preservation Trust are concerned that the current tally of around 350,000 hares hunted each year out of a national population of 750,000 is leading to dangerously reduced numbers in many parts of the country.

Philip Mansbridge, CEO of Care for the Wild, said: "I think people would be shocked to know that the people who shoot hares are the ones who get to decide on whether or not there should be a close-season. The government needs to step in, involve wildlife organisations to get some balance, and give these animals a break."

Chris Packham
The call for a close-season has been backed by BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham. In a recent interview with Philip Mansbridge, he described the lack of a close-season as: "Disgusting. It's out of date, it's irresponsible and it's immoral.

"This is an embarrassment for the UK. I wish you the greatest success with this and I'm sure most people would. It's outrageous," he added.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/hare-conservation013.html

Research shows that the fringes of fields are vital for the survival of hares

Hares Live Life on the Edge

November 2012. Brown hares have declined in Britain by as much as 80 per cent since the 19th century due to the intensification of farming methods, and now ecologists are working on ways of conserving their numbers.

A team from the Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences (CEMS) on the University of Hull's Scarborough campus and the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) have looked at how hares use fields, field margins and small blocks of woodland in farmland in North Yorkshire.

Radio tracking hares
By tracking hares fitted with small radio transmitters they found that, especially in large, uniform fields, hares spent most of their time foraging and resting in or near the margins. Where farmers had left broad margins, sown with grasses and wildflowers, hares used these in preference to other habitats, even if they only represented a very small proportion of the entire area. The team's research shows that managing small areas for wildlife in farmland might make a very big contribution to the survival of the brown hare population.

Dr Phil Wheeler, who carried out the study with Dr Silviu Petrovan of CEMS and Dr Alastair Ward of FERA, said: "We know a lot about how changes in farming have affected some of our wildlife, but relatively little about our mammals. This work shows that the loss of field margins may have contributed to the decline in brown hares.

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/field-hares.html