Mountain hare 'saved by grouse moor'

11th April

By Jody Harrison  @jodeharrisonHTReporter

UPDATED

Hare today, not gone tomorrow.

THEIR numbers were throught to be dwindling, victims of a changing landscape and the heavy hand of man.

But now fresh analyses has suggested that Scotland's mountain hares are thriving  - especially wild areas where human activity is at its most intensive.

A study undertaken by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has found that grouse moor, and the efforts taken by shooting estates to preserve their land, are a "net benefit" to hare populations.

The mountain hare is the UK’s only native hare and was listed as Near Threatened in a recent review by the Mammal Society indicating that the species is of conservation concern in the UK.

The report examined mountain hare counts during a 16-year period from 2001 to 2017, during the spring across Highland, Grampian and Tayside. 

It found that populations of the elusive mammals was "significantly higher" on driven grouse moors than on unmanaged areas or moors managed for "walked-up" shooting.

However, the GWCT data flies in the face of research released last year by the Dr Adam Watson, of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and RSPB Scotland which said that between 1999 and 2017 hare numbers dropped by more than 30 per cent each year - with some counts finding fewer than one per cent of the original levels spotted in 1954.

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Ramblers injured by wire snares set in Peak District NP to trap foxes

So far this year two runners have been injured by the snares – wire nooses intended to catch foxes which prey on red grouse – on open-access land owned by a large shooting estate in the Peak District National Park.

These injuries have highlighted the ongoing debate about the use of snares and the issue of what gets trapped in them. 

An investigation by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) uncovered 100 snares set in a small area which is often frequented by runners, ramblers and dog walkers.

The setting of snares is legal and bound by the Countryside Act 1981. It stipulates that they have to be of a type that are free running and slacken once an animal is trapped.

The Act also says that they must be inspected every day and snared foxes must be killed quickly and humanely by a shot from a rifle at close range.

More controversially, though, snares often catch other animals. In the same area LACS found several ‘stink pits’ which contained the bodies of dead animals designed to attract foxes to the snares.

Among these bodies were remains of mountain hares, and the investigators also found a number of dead mountain hares laid out on paths near snares to act as a lure for foxes.

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