Mountain Hares are native to Britain and Ireland, unlike Brown Hares, so we should look after them.
This very recent paper;
… which is public access has an arresting title and the text looks pretty convincing to me. Grouse moors not great for Mountain Hares in the Peak District. Read the paper, look at the data and linger on Table 2 which shows us that Mountain Hares like bogs, and they like Restored Bogs better than Unrestored Bogs, but that even Unrestored Bogs are better than Grouse Moor Bogs (or just read the Abstract to get the same message but I need to look at the data for peace of mind).
This may not come as a surprise because there are long term data from another part of the UK entirely, northeast Scotland, that strongly suggest that grouse moors are poor for Mountain Hares – see Mountain Hares close to extinction on NE Scotland grouse moors, 14 August 2018.
The GWCT disagrees with both these findings but their research methods have received a thorough kicking here – what do you think?
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I said the other day before I was aware of the method kicking paper that I would need independent corroboration of the GWCT figures because I didn’t believe them or much else based on game keeper conducted surveys. Having now read the destruction of the methodology used I suspect that Mountain Hare densities are much lower than GWCT claim and as the other paper shows. Another nail in the coffin of GWCTs scientific impartiality and credibility.
Mountain hares are a separate species from the brown hare. In Scotland they used to to be slaughtered in their hundreds because the shooters of wildlife for fun thought they carried infections. I was delighted when the Scottish Government brought in a regulation requiring a license from the Government before mountains hares could be killed and I have the idea that that licence will only be forth coming with great difficulty.
Of course in England where Defra takes no action at all to help our besieged wildlife, mountain hares continue to be slaughtered regardless, by the shooters for fun. It is yet one more example of this Government caring nothing for nature. No wonder there are few mountain hares on English moorlands when they are slaughtered in there hundreds. Defra’s lack of action is yet another example, if one was needed, of how they prefer the killing of nature, and their support for the shooters for fun to living with and supporting our steadily declining wildlife.
It seems even the pathetically few native species that might sometimes incidentally benefit from ‘management’ for driven grouse shooting….erm do even less so than we thought. This reminds me work that happened to mention wader numbers appeared to decline rather than increase with intensification of grouse shooting in the Lammermuir hills https://raptorpersecutionscotland.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/where-have-all-the-merlins-gone.pdf On top of the species like juniper and Scottish crossbill that never do well on grouse moors (but which rarely get flagged up even by us) this is one hell of a kick in the teeth to the ‘con’servation credentials of shooting as espoused by the likes of the GWCT.
I have a lot of respect and sympathy for competent and conscientious researchers doing their best to assess the populations of plants and animals with what are basic and often bloody laborious methods. However, it looks as if technology is going to revolutionise and dramatically reduce the time, work spent on and improve the results of this type of fieldwork. For one thing using heat sensitive cameras looks as if it’s going to be brilliant at revealing the bird and mammal life in forest canopies, almost as clearly as counting guppies in a fish tank. I can’t help but feel this won’t just be a boon to delivering real conservation where it’s needed, but will be another nail in the coffin for those exploiting the more imprecise surveying methods to give an unduly positive picture for whatever reason.
My concern now is,will this dodgy data methodology by GWCT , be used to influence the shooting of Mountain Hares in the Peak District
? And as far as I’m aware Scotland have finally awarded Mountain Hares Protection,but here in the Peak District ,there is no such protection ?