Tuesday 19 February 2008

Mountain Hare Cull


The Mountain or Blue Hare is an animal from the upland heather moorland and the Scottish
Highlands. Moorland environments provide a perfect habitat with an abundance of short, pioneer heather for feeding, and longer more mature heather for shelter and protection from predators. Highest densities of mountain hares are found on moors managed for grouse where the burning produces different aged stands of heather ideal for both hares and grouse.



The diet of mountain hare is variable depending on the available vegetation. If possible the Hares will feed on grasses during the summer and switch to a heather-dominated diet during winter. Other vegetation that features in their diet are rushes, sedges, blueberry, gorse, the bark and low twigs from trees.


The mountain hare is not a managed game species, but at times large numbers are shot. Lee tells me this cull was needed as the hares were doing so well on the local moors he managers and numbers had swelled in the last two seasons. This amount might seem large until you think of the acreage involved. A mountain Hare can also eat a third in a day of what a moorland sheep can. More from Lee the Game Keeper tomorrow.

12 comments:

imac said...

2 Interesting posts here Pete.

Tom said...

I agree Imac..
I would be thrilled to see a Mountain Hare.... like I would be thrilled to see a mink... but at what cost. Lee and other Game Keepers and Reserve managers do these culls on regular basis at this time of year. If they didn't then managed countryside would be completely different.

DeeMom said...

Animal management for sure...do they at least prepare the hare for food for those in need?

Possible use the wool as well, like for spinners and weavers?

alicesg said...

Poor bunnies. My son will cry if he sees this. He is born in the year of the rabbit. Once he saw a documentary show, an eagle eating a rabbit, he cried but then he was still young.

I guess different country has different problems, over here the crows are a nuisance. They are shot down to prevent diseases.

Tom said...

I read up a bit on these Hares while sorting out this post with Peter and it seems that the
Mountain or Blue Hare is not eaten like brown hare or rabbit... the meat is not concidered good. The fur will most likely be used and the meat fed to the dogs.

Anonymous said...

I wish somebody would do something like this with our politicians. We got way too many of them and they breed like rabbits.

Sharon said...

Cute critters. LOL at Old man lincoln! :)

lee said...

ah right lets have this clear
the hare is culled because of numbers sure but it also stops the spread of deer ticks that is threatening grouse numbers through spread of disease known as louping ill
the hare shoot is a known tradition in scotland for mainly the policy of keeping numbers down and also was a after season thing for the beaters (helpers of the land )to take for food really and also a bit of sport which normally they woudnt get because the game was always the lairds , but today the hares are put to a butcher then mainly they go abroad to france or italy for comsumpsion

Tom said...

Hi Lee
I know Peter will be pleased you commented...
Busy time of year I believe for you at the moment..

All the best and keep safe.

Tom

Willard said...

Very interesting and informative posts, especially to a retired land management supervisor and deputy warden in Pennsylvania. We never did culling work, but we did implement extensive habitat manipulation techniques.

Unknown said...

Peter,

I'm currently in the process of completing a project on hare coursing for a Journalism MA at UCLan university in Preston, England.

The aim of my project is to try and capture people’s passion for coutrysports and their rich cultural heritage. Secondarily I aim to provide a space for counter arguments against the dominant anti - hunting /country sports sentiment that is so prevalent in the UK today.

Would I be able to use some of your photos in the project?

Regards

Anonymous said...

the hare are culled to save the grouse which are shot,, blood thirsty lot arent you? stop killing and do something useful