Wild Hare Welfare: Brown Hares in Agricultural Landscapes

Brown hare populations have declined significantly in the UK. Understanding their welfare challenges in modern agricultural landscapes guides conservation support.

Key Facts

Brown hare populations have declined by 80% since the 1960s in the UK
They are surface-living animals without burrows and dependent on varied agricultural landscape structure
Leverets left by their mothers in separated locations are frequently found and incorrectly assumed to be abandoned
Hares are hunted under current UK law including through hare coursing until the recent ban
Arable farming intensification has removed the habitat diversity that hares require

Welfare Considerations

Brown hares face multiple welfare threats in modern agricultural landscapes. Intensive cultivation exposes leverets to machinery during spring cutting. Loss of hedgerows and field margins eliminates sheltering and foraging habitat. Illegal hare coursing causes significant distress through prolonged pursuit and physical injury before law enforcement arrives. Road mortality affects dispersing animals seeking territory. The fundamental welfare requirement is habitat diversity with field margins, hedgerows, and varied crop structure that provides year-round foraging and sheltering opportunity.

What You Can Do

Leave leverets in place if you find them as their mother will return at dawn and dusk
Support agri-environment schemes that create and maintain hare habitat
Report suspected hare coursing immediately to police
Drive carefully on rural roads particularly at dawn and dusk when hares are most active
Support organizations working to protect hares and their habitat
Participate in citizen science hare monitoring through the Mammal Society