It’s not all white for hares
IT seemed like a good idea at the time, when a collective of Mid-Victorian Landowners, shipped a few consignments of 50 live Mountain Hares to the Peak District hills from their Highland home.
Of course, this was no altruistic reintroduction of a once native mammal, but rather the transportation of a prey-item to be shot, as an addition to the indigenous red grouse.
A bit of variety for the paying guests.
However the clueless ‘sportsmen’ showed a complete lack of understanding of the hare as a ‘good target’ animal.
You see, when a blue hare is spooked and runs off, they habitually stop in their tracks and look back. It was like shooting ducks at a fair and the practice soon fell out of favour.
Mountain hares turn white in winter, which is fine for camouflage in the months of snow cover in the Highlands, but not so good for the heather-clad moorlands, peaty hollows and rocky outcrops of round here.
When the snow is gone, they stand out like the proverbial sore thumb, which made them even easier to shoot.
Unfortunately, these beauties have been under further pressure in recent years and now face regular culls from the successors of the original landowners.
Ironic really, as the rationale for shooting them these days, is not for ‘sport’ but rather because the hare eats heather in competition with the red grouse.
A kind of perverse conservation.
It is also claimed that mountain hares are implicated in the transmission of louping-ill virus that afflicts grouse.
Truth is, the Jury is out on that one.
For example, researcher Annabel Harrison says in the Journal of Applied Ecology, (2010) ‘Evidence from the available literature is limited, restricting our ability to reliably assess the effectiveness of culling mountain hares to control ticks, louping-ill virus or increase red grouse densities.
Furthermore, the information required to assess the cost-benefit of this management strategy is lacking.
The population response of mountain hares to culling is not well understood.
We conclude that there is no compelling evidence to suggest culling mountain hares might increase red grouse density.’
On the other hand, The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, on their current website, seem more inclined to blame the hare.
“Where grouse suffer from the tick-borne louping-ill virus, hares can sustain high levels of these parasites and help perpetuate the disease.
“As there is no alternative form of treatment, in these cases hare numbers may need to be temporarily reduced to suppress the disease.”
Well they would say that, wouldn’t they?
I should throw into the pot here the fact that grouse are susceptible to Louping Illness in areas where there are no mountain hares.
There is of course a PhD in the study of these issues and no room to explore further here, however, it is amazing how my ramblings can bring to light other exciting questions.
For example, can knowledge of our population of mountain hares help the study of other animals above the Arctic Circle which also turn white in winter and may be affected by the alleged effects of climate change?
I say ‘alleged’ as I am a closet sceptic, but no room to explore that thesis either.
However, I would love to know whether seasonal adaptations become compromised, as with our aforementioned ‘sore thumb’ hares?
Or as the scientists put it: “The biannual phenotypic shifts are controlled with 19 complex physiological mechanisms entrained by photoperiod and optimised to match local conditions.
“However, as seasonal duration and extent of snow cover declines due to climate change, species become colour mismatched against their surroundings.”
I prefer my allusion of ‘sore thumb’ and, besides, as we clamour to shoot them with a camera, their foibles are very handy.
Ken Gartside, of the, Saddleworth Naturewatch Facebook group, took brilliant shots in January.
The group, like so many in recent years, share some amazing photographs on their page and many of them taken with mobile phones.
In future columns I will come back to Ken and his blue hares, as both he and I have many more tales to tell.
Mine include the time when I rescued a young hare from my dog back in 1982 and hand reared it.
We named him Kenny Leveret and what a character he turned out to be.
I had one picture, now long gone, where Kenny was snuggled in the dog’s bed, with Scarba, my German short haired pointer, Myrtle the ancient cat, who adopted us after moving to Bleak House from Crowden Youth Hostel, and my sister’s lovely mongrel, Dusty, who was down for the weekend.
Kenny was very partial to carrots, and when he saw one in my hand he would proceed to dash around the room at speed and, rather like a fairground, ‘wall of death,’ he would go higher up the furniture and actually onto the wall as he sped round.
I should also point out that a year earlier I took Griselda, the golden eagle, for a short flight on the hill, and can confirm that neither the grouse nor the blue hares and indeed the sheep were too pleased.
More of Griselda in the near future.
Happy days.