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Why Irish hares need protection to boost numbers

Saturday, 14 March 2009

In its response to the review of the Wildlife Order the Ulster Wildlife Trust has chosen not to support greater protection for our cultural icon and trust logo, the Irish hare.

The trust and others have apparently based this on flawed premises. The first assumption is that ‘in the short-term the (Irish hare) population is increasing’.

This is a very optimistic interpretation of a very small amount of data and conflicts with anecdotal evidence of a general scarcity of hares.

Many, including those responsible for the surveys, acknowledge that an enormous disparity in hare density exists.

The trust appears to have overlooked the fact that the actual number of hares counted in 2008 (187 hares) is the lowest since 2002.

There is increasing evidence to support the view that activities such as coursing pose a real threat to the Irish hare. Nonetheless, the acknowledged level of uncertainty provides sufficient reason for applying the Precautionary Principle, the first recommendation of the Northern Ireland Biodiversity Strategy.

I am sure many readers will be astonished to learn that the Ulster Wildlife Trust is content to allow the Irish hare to remain a quarry species.

Permanent legal protection for the Irish hare would signal its vulnerable status and help wider conservation measures.

There is no conservation case for not granting greater legal protection for this beautiful and vulnerable animal.

Mike Rendle

Irish Hare Initiative, Tyrone

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FACT: There is no overlap whatsoever in the diets of hares and badgers.
FACT: Despite culling 6000 badgers annually, TB continues to rise in the Republic's national herd.
FACT: TB has fallen by 50% in the North without culling.

Lets deal in facts - not hearsay.

Posted by Mike Rendle | 26.03.09, 20:22 GMT

A member of the Department whose duty it is to protect badgers explained to me that they were as 'plentiful as rats'. Increase in the culture - the 'sport of badger baiting' by one of our widespread minorities is down to the fact that the rural terrain allows these creatures to succeed at the expense of other species. Although they are omnivorous and eat birds eggs, frogs, and all small creatures, it stands to sense that the overlap in vegetable diet will have a detrimental effect on the proliferation of the hare. It is quite amusing to be accused by a badger lover of being hysterical. There certainly has been a warranted decrease due to a protective culling in parts of the Irish Republic ; this has been accompanied by a salutary improvement in farm animal health (TB etc.), which the badger brigade aver is not causal.

Posted by Malachy McAnespie | 16.03.09, 11:08 GMT

There is no link whatsoever between the decline of the Irish hare and badgers. Northern Ireland's badger population is far from 'excessive' having itself declined by around 10% in the last 15 years. Let's deal with facts - not hysteria.

Posted by Mike Rendle | 14.03.09, 21:30 GMT

The over protection of the badger is to a degree responsible for the decrease of our Irish hares within the biodiversity spectrum. Our highly paid members of 'The Northern Ireland Biodiversity Unit' do not have the intelligent integrity to give leadership and to use the 'c' word - cull, in relation to the excessive numbers of badgers which endanger a whole range of species. They are terrified of the ignorant response of the 'cuddly teddy bear' type advocates, for these nasty little creatures.

Posted by Malachy McAnespie | 14.03.09, 10:46 GMT