The Scottish Gamekeepers Association say they plan to talk to the Langholm Initiative about returning Mountain Hares back to Langholm. The suggestion that this would involve up to 25,000 animals a year, the number that have been culled in recent years (2015 figure), are certainly exagerrated – but this ‘proposal’ looks more like a new plan to rid grouse moors of hares than a serious conservation measure.
Alex Hogg, the Chair of the SGA joked ‘Mountain hares were common when gamekeepers worked at Langholm. There is potential for a win-win, here, for returning lost species, for Reserve visitors to enjoy and for getting hares back to favourable conservation status in Scotland.‘.
This story also features as an ‘exclusive’ in The Herald although the website Dumfries and Galloway What’s going on also cuts and pastes the SGA ‘story’.
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Absolutely right Mark this is no conservation measure. On the first of March the owners of grouse moors will no longer be allowed to kill mountain hares with out a license ( which they are not likely to get) so they are trying to rid their moors of hares by some other means. Can you believe how low some of these owners will sink. Mountain hares are one of the main preys of golden eagles, so voiding the grouse moors of mountain hares is effectively also making sure there will be no golden eagles over grouse moorland.
This form of skullduggery has got to be stopped. These shooters for fun will stop at nothing.
Thought for a moment I’d stepped forward to 1st of April.
Mountain Hare brood management.
prasad – yep, pretty much.