Concern over intensive culls of blue hares
I’VE always loved the fact that we have mountain hares in the Peak District, and there were not many days in my three decades at Crowden that I didn’t see one and doff my cap.
Regular readers will know that the blue or mountain hare was imported from Scotland during the 19th century as an additional animal to shoot by a number of hunting-types.
If they had known anything about the mammal in the first place, they surely would not have bothered as when disturbed they habitually stop a few yards away and look back, which makes them too easy to shoot.
Thankfully the blue hare, which turns completely white in the winter, has flourished and they can be seen from Bleaklow to Kinder.
During my tenure in the valley there were a number of times when I would see a Landrover or all-terrain vehicle loaded with dead blue hares.
There had been one more pointless cull, although you would be told it was because the hare was in competition with the red grouse for the heather. A kind of inverted conservation as the grouse were only going to be shot anyway.
Unfortunately these ‘culls’ still take place and the Mammal Society has joined a coalition of ten environmental and outdoor organisations calling for action by the Scottish government to introduce urgent safeguards for mountain hare populations.
Mountain hares are indigenous to Britain, unlike rabbits and brown hares which were introduced by the Romans. Almost all of the British population is found in Scotland, with just a small population surviving in the Peak District in England.
They particularly favour heather moorland, and there has been concern about the very intensive culling of mountain hares that has been taking place on some grouse moors.
The group of organisations, which also includes RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Raptor Study Group, Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, Cairngorms Campaign, National Trust Scotland, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, John Muir Trust and Mountaineering Scotland, are asking for a temporary complete ban of all mountain hare culling on grouse moors.
This should continue until more is known about the size of local hare populations and it is established that culling does not compromise the sustainability of these populations.
Despite being under a period of ‘voluntary restraint,’ mountain hare culls continue on a large and unprecedented scale across many grouse moors in Scotland, potentially causing the Scottish government to breach its legally binding international obligations for this species.
In 2014, the coalition warned the Scottish government that the ‘voluntary restraint’ claimed to be in place was unlikely to protect these mammals from widescale culls on grouse moors, including in the Cairngorms National Park.
Since then, reports of culls have been numerous and are thought to be driving a significant decline in numbers of mountain hare, possibly even leading to local extinctions in some areas.