Mountain hares are a native upland species found primarily in Scotland, facing welfare challenges from driven shooting, habitat management, and climate change affecting their snowy camouflage advantage.
Mountain hare welfare faces a combination of natural and human-driven pressures. The climate-driven camouflage mismatch - white hares on snowless hills - is a growing welfare challenge as individual hares become more vulnerable to eagle and fox predation. Driven culling for grouse management creates direct welfare harm; the Scottish licensing system introduced in 2021 is a step toward regulated management. The broader welfare of mountain hare populations requires both upland habitat management that maintains good heather coverage and a proportionate, evidence-based approach to population management that does not reduce hares to unsustainable levels.