Brown Hare Welfare and Agricultural Intensification

Brown hare populations have declined by over 80% in the UK since the 1960s as agricultural intensification has eliminated the diverse landscape structure they depend on for survival.

Key Facts

UK brown hare populations fell from an estimated 4 million in the 1960s to under 800,000 today
Hares are entirely dependent on agricultural landscapes unlike rabbits which use woodland edges
Early cutting of silage in May and June kills leverets sheltering in grass at the peak of the breeding season
Hares can run at 70 kilometers per hour but cannot sustain this speed and are vulnerable to coursing dogs
March hare boxing behavior in spring is typically females rebuffing male advances rather than males competing

Welfare Considerations

Brown hares are precocial — born fully furred and mobile — but spend their first weeks sheltering in grass that is increasingly cut earlier for silage. Leverets cut by mowing machinery die from traumatic injury. Adults in impoverished landscapes with insufficient cover and food face chronic nutritional stress and increased predation vulnerability. Coursing with dogs causes intense fear, exhaustion, and often death. Hares are solitary, long-range animals whose welfare needs require landscape-scale management across multiple farms rather than single-farm interventions.

What You Can Do

Support Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust hare conservation programs
Advocate for agri-environment payments requiring delayed cutting dates to protect leverets
Oppose illegal hare coursing and support Police Rural Crime Units in enforcement
Create diverse farm landscapes with grass headlands and beetle banks that support hare populations