Shooting Hares to Protect the Grouse

Mountain hare populations in some upland areas face "local extinction" despite promises to protect their numbers. 

Grouse shooting estates have previously promised "voluntary restraint" to keep hare populations healthy in areas such as the Cairngorms. But a coalition of environmental and outdoor organisations said there was evidence that culls were causing harm. The coalition includes: RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Raptor Study Group, Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, Cairngorms Campaign, National Trust for Scotland, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Mammal Society, John Muir Trust and Mountaineering Scotland.

Conservationists claim mountain hares are routinely culled on a large scale across many grouse moors in Scotland. They claim that in some areas it has been shown that the culls are leading to severe population declines and potentially even local extinctions.

This practice of culling has developed relatively recently, in the belief that it protects red grouse against the tick-borne louping ill virus and so increases the surplus of grouse to be shot at the end of the summer. However there is a lack of scientific evidence to support this claim, says the coalition of campaigners.

Duncan Orr-Ewing from RSPB Scotland, said "In 2014 we had serious concerns that the notion of voluntary restraint would be ignored by many in the grouse shooting industry and, with the evidence of culls continuing on many moors over the last three years, it seems that these fears have been well founded.