Highland hare cull sparks calls for better counts

One of the strath’s Highland councillors has blasted a reminder that “there are more factors to consider than those of sporting estates” amid growing concerns over the scale of culling mountain hares in the Cairngorms National Park.

Bill Lobban, of Aviemore, is Highland Council’s champion for the hare.

He said yesterday (Wednesday): “I am extremely concerned over reports of the indiscriminate slaughter of our native hares based on dubious scientific information.

“Despite the howls of derision from one narrow sector there are more factors to consider in a national park than those of sporting estates. It is for the park authority and Scottish Natural Heritage to get together to prevent this happening again.”

There have been claims that over on the Lecht side of the national park hundreds of hares are being slaughtered.

The latest claims of over-culling by gamekeepers referred events just outside the strath, but the Cairngorms National Park Authority backed calls for better counts of the animals.

In a statement on Monday, Hamish Trench, the park’s director of conservation and visitor experience, reiterated the authority’s setting out earlier concerns about the balance of moorland species and habitat management and the need for “better data on mountain hare populations is part of this.”

He went on: “Observation suggests there is a good population of mountain hares in the Cairngorms and the managed moorlands provide a good habitat for them.

“We back the current research project which is working with estates in the National Park to establish better counts.”

Social media had carried claims that over on the Lecht side of the hills too many of the animals were being slaughtered.

Said Mr Trench: “In this case we understand the hare cull was part of a planned annual management cull. We recognise the public concern about the scale of culls and this emphasises the need for good information on populations and restraint in line with SNH’s advice in the meantime.

“In particular we expect moorland managers to ensure any culls do not threaten the conservation status of mountain hares.”

Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group also pitched in, pointing out to the Strathy that their concern was growing over the future of the endangered mountain hare.

Convenor Gus Jones said: “Illegal persecution of eagles principally associated with grouse moor management in the central and eastern Highlands has been rated as the most severe constraint on Scottish golden eagles - but another potential constraint, long recognised by Scottish Natural Heritage, has been the decreased availability of mountain hare prey resulting from the extensive culling of mountain hares on some Highland grouse moor estates.

“Observations have revealed a relationship between live prey abundance and breeding success of eagles.

“We also know, since a 1997 report by Dr Adam Watson, that across the global range of the golden eagle groups of this magnificent predator that concentrate on, a few species of live prey such as hares and rabbits tend to have a higher breeding success than ones with a greater breadth of prey species.

“It is completely to be expected that knocking out high numbers of hares by ruthless culling, or for that matter by allowing virulent imported diseases from domesticated stock to take hold in wild rabbit populations, has potential to be seriously damaging to conservation efforts for top predators like eagles.”

Dr Jones emphasised that a respected raptor biologist and SNH scientist, the late Dr Jeff Watson, had been right to criticise as “crude management” the attempts to eliminate mountain hares.

“In his classic book on the golden eagle he carefully explained that, with hares being such an important prey species, ‘any serious reductions will obviously have an impact on golden eagles and/or deflect more eagle predation on to alternative prey, notably grouse’.

“These days many appreciate that our uplands need top predators and their prey and will thank the anonymous bird watcher who last month found that mountain hares are being shot by the trailer load on our doorstep in the national park.

“This may be the tip of an iceberg and many will see that ‘voluntary restraint’ is not helping ensure a future for what the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan calls one of our ‘most loved and distinctive’ mountain mammals.

“Moreover, it may be bad for its formidable natural predator Scotland’s new national bird, the golden eagle.”

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.