Winter 2002 No. 15

Page 8

Tracking the Dorset Hare

Seeking hare sightings! You’ll find enclosed with your Newsletter a survey card for brown hares, if you see a hare this winter or spring, fill in the card and let us know where. This is part of a special survey to update our knowledge of brown hares in Dorset – funded by the Mammal Trust UK and English Nature.

Brown hares have little legal protection, partly because they are game animals and can be managed by farmers and landowners, and partly because they are also a minor pest and can damage crops and young tree plantations.

The number of hares have declined substantially since the Second World War – by an estimated 75%. The main reason for this decline seems to be a change in the way farms are run. Today’s modern farms are intensive and specialised, while fifty years ago most farms were mixed enterprises. Mixed farms have a patchwork quilt of fields which provide year-round grazing for hares as well as long crops for them to hide in. Modern cereal farms provide little or no food for hares in late summer and autumn, and livestock farms have few crops for them to hide in. Modern farm machinery and pesticides also kill many hares.

In January DWT will be running training days to train volunteers to survey for brown hares, if you would like to take part or know more about the project please contact Sarah Williams at DWT on 01305 264620

Sarah Williams DWT

Hare Fact File

Brown hares are easily recognisable, they have long, black-tipped ears and powerful hind legs and are larger than rabbits. They live in very exposed habitats, and rely on acute senses and running at speeds of up to 70kph (45mph) to evade predators. Hares do not use burrows, but make a small depression in the ground among long grass – this is known as a form.

They spend most of the day on or near the form, moving out to feed in the open at night. Tender grass shoots, including cereal crops, are their main foods. Though generally solitary, hares sometimes band into loose groups when feeding. Breeding takes place between February and September and a female can rear three or four litters a year, each of two to four young.

They spend most of the day on or near the form, moving out to feed in the open at night. Tender grass shoots, including cereal crops, are their main foods. Though generally solitary, hares sometimes band into loose groups when feeding. Breeding takes place between February and September and a female can rear three or four litters a year, each of two to four young.

Beavers – Welcome home (but not just yet)

The European beaver, which once swam on the river Stour, became extinct in Britain hundreds of years ago as a result of hunting and trapping. It has now been reintroduced to almost all European countries – the UK being one of the few exceptions.

An article by Kenny Taylor in BBC Wildlife Magazine (December 2002) reports that plans to begin a trial beaver reintroduction at a site in Scotland next Spring – at Knapdale in Kintyre – are currently being delayed by opposition among some landowners; despite the fact that there is a great deal of support for the scheme.

However, the article concludes on a more positive note: “Not all landowners are anti-beaver. At Bamff, in Perthshire, Paul Ramsay now has a potential breeding group of European beavers living in two large enclosures. He sees beavers as useful contributors to wetland conservation projects on his estate, and Roy Dennis of the Scottish Beaver Network reckons that many other landowners will eventually follow suit”.

Survey dates for your new diary

Contributions for the next Newsletter to:
Peter Irvine,
34 Bryanston Street,
Blandford,
Dorset
DT11 7AZ