The mountain hare is Scotland's only native lagomorph and faces significant welfare pressures from driven grouse moor management, climate change, and disease. Conservation efforts support both populations and individual welfare.
Mountain hares face welfare challenges from multiple directions: direct killing through driven grouse moor management, climate-driven camouflage mismatch that increases predation risk, and disease outbreaks. Large-scale culls on grouse moors involve acute welfare harm to individual hares. The population-level consequence of sustained culling - reduced group size and disrupted social structure - creates additional chronic welfare stresses. Climate change-driven coat colour mismatch represents a growing chronic welfare risk that is difficult to manage directly. Supporting both population monitoring and licensing reform addresses mountain hare welfare systematically.