ZSL Whipsnade Zoo Wild hares at Whipsnade

Tim May

Tim May

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
When I used to visit Whipsnade back in the 1970s and 1980s it wasn’t unusual to encounter wild hares on the premises; I always used to enjoy watching them.

I am still a regular visitor to Whipsnade; I generally go at least eight times annually but, sadly, haven’t seen a hare there for years.

I would be very interested to know, please, if any anybody else has seen a hare at Whipsnade in recent years.
 
I used to see wild hares regularly upto about 2007 / 2008 and got some excellent photos but haven't seen any in the last few years.
 
I saw a lone hare about 4 years ago, oddly on the lawn between the sealion house & discovery centre!
 
I just had a google about the status of hares in the UK and was rather shocked at their decline!

I found this page, which I would assume is reasonably accurate: Hare Preservation Trust

But recent surveys show the brown hare has declined by more than 80% during the past 100 years and the decline is ongoing. In some parts of Britain, such as the South-West, the brown hare is almost a rarity and may even be locally extinct.

...

Despite its decline, the hare is the only game species in Britain which does not have a shooting close season. Large, organised shoots in East Anglia during February and March can account for 40% of the entire national brown hare population.

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Probably not surprising, wild brown hares can still be seen in the Highland Wildlife Park, but a rapid assessment of their presence or absence in and around the UK's various rural collections may paint an interesting picture.
 
Thanks for the various responses.

As I mentioned at the start of this thread, it was not unusual to see hares at Whipsnade in the 1970s / 80s.

Hare numbers at Whipsnade appeared to decline during the 1990s and I've seldom seen them at Whipsnade since the turn-of-the-century.

I haven't seen a hare there in recent years so it is interesting to know that both “pipaluk” and "AdamD601" have seen them within the last few years.
 
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There is an interesting conservation issue with the Brown Hare in Britain - given that it appears to be an introduced species, probably by the Romans , what conservation actions should be taken? Does it compete with the original native species, the Mountain Hare now found in Scotland and Ireland, in a Grey/ Red squirrel fashion? Although we think of introduced animals as a feature of recent history, people have been moving and releasing animals outside their natural range probably since the Neolithic, and as a result there are many countries with wildlife which are in essence a kind of living archeology
 
Zoovolunteer said:
Does it compete with the original native species, the Mountain Hare now found in Scotland and Ireland, in a Grey/ Red squirrel fashion?
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It does; the Mountain does not thrive in areas where the Brown is commonplace, as the latter is larger and able to outcompete them. As such, the Mountain - which despite its name is perfectly able to thrive in lowland habitats - is only found in such habitats in areas where the Brown is absent, for instance throughout Ireland.

Although the Mountain Hare does cope better with mountainous terrain somewhat better than does the Brown, as they are significantly less fussy about the quality of their forage and as such can subsist on much scrubbier and woodier vegetation, this advantage is nonetheless outweighed by the size advantage held by the latter taxon. As such, the range of the Mountain Hare within the United Kingdom has been contracting over the last few centuries as Brown Hare have expanded their range; the last native population in Wales appears to have died off in the 1980's or early 1990's whilst the last native population in England, in the north Pennines, went extinct sometime in the early 20th century, whilst introduced populations in Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland which may had interbred with the last native individuals ultimately went extinct in the 1980's.

However, in recent years there have been increasing numbers of reports indicating there may be a population of Mountain Hare in the northern Cheviots; as there are native populations just over the border in Scotland this *could* be a natural range expansion, or even a surviving English population which has lingered at the point of invisibility until now, but equally it is possible illicit introductions have taken place.
 
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