Hares are important to the eco-system

Sir,

I must admit I quite enjoy reading your regular contributor Iain Thornber’s articles on all things Scottish, even though I do not always agree with him.

In your issue of February 22, he was chronicling the demise of hares, both the brown hare and the mountain hare.

Although a long time ago, he quotes that, towards the end of the 19th century, their numbers began to decrease by as much as 80 per cent, but goes on to say that on the Kintyre peninsula, during the early 1930s, daily bags of 1,000 were the rule rather than the exception.

To me, this encapsulates the attitude of many so-called sportsmen even today – in other words, choosing to ignore science in favour of their ‘sport’.

He finishes by suggesting hares would be better candidates for rewilding than lynx.

First of all, hares are not extinct in Scotland, despite many grouse moor owners’ attempts to achieve this.

There are many recent reports of mass culls of mountain hares on driven grouse moors, supposedly to protect red grouse from ticks. Yet the red grouse, which are reared in hugely artificially high numbers, will either be shot or die from disease.

It is also no coincidence that mountain hares form a large part of the golden eagles’ diet, and golden eagles, like anything else which dares to interfere with grouse numbers, are not welcome on driven grouse moors.

On a lighter note, I would love to see a video of a hare jumping backwards over a hedge! Ian Hopkins. Isle of Bute.