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Hares


Walker570
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Just reading my copy of The Countryside Magazine (NFU) and there is a piece in there about hares dying.

Dr Diana Bell is the lead researcher and they have found hares testing positive for RHD Type 2 and they are asking that any fresh hares found dead be retained and to call Dr Bell by e mailing d.bell@uea.ac.uk.

 

She says there are currently several pathogens and it is too early to say which is currently the primary cause of the hare die-off.

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16 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Yes, I did see your thread but with having the e mail etc. thought I would put up a new one.  Tragic if it is true as the old hares have a

pretty hard time of it compared with rabbits.

I fully agree and it would be a very sad day if they declined to a dangerous level in population  .

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Strangely enough I was walking some pigeons of a rape field on Thursday morning of this week and there was a dead hare lying in the field, no signs of it being shot, in fact it looked in perfect condition apart from it being dead that is, its eyes were bright and although it was stone cold I would have said it wasn’t long dead, maybe a few hours.

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Uni of East Anglia did the test revealing that RHD had killed the two they tested. I would think therefor east of England, but old'un says he say a dead one elsewhere so maybe countrywide. I know RHD soon spread once it arrived, initially wiping out rabbits completely in places where hundreds could be found in any one night lamping, here in West Leicestersire. With rabbits they tend to die down the hole but of course with hares living above ground the bodies will be found.

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1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

Uni of East Anglia did the test revealing that RHD had killed the two they tested. I would think therefor east of England, but old'un says he say a dead one elsewhere so maybe countrywide. I know RHD soon spread once it arrived, initially wiping out rabbits completely in places where hundreds could be found in any one night lamping, here in West Leicestersire. With rabbits they tend to die down the hole but of course with hares living above ground the bodies will be found.

We do have RHD in rabbits in this area, about ten years ago there were large numbers of rabbits on the local farms then we had a bad outbreak of Myxomatosis which virtually wiped them out, after about five years they started to recover to some good numbers, one day I was having a walk around and found a perfectly healthy rabbit dead, about a week later I found another two, from this point on the rabbits just seem to disappear overnight and now I hardly see any on the local farms although some of the farms a little further from home have a few pockets of healthy rabbits, so its possible the Hare I found on Thursday died from RHD.

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2 hours ago, washerboy said:

I have seen more pairing up this last month or so then I've seen in 10 yrs 

Yes, We saw a fair number at Barholm on the last cocks only day. RHD will wipe out rabbits almost overnight and may just leave a few young ones.  Unusual as old'un says to see dead ones above ground as they tend to die down the holes.   The frustrating bit being there is very little we can do about it.  I remember back in the early 50s when myxy first came through it wiped every rabbit out on our farm. Back then we still took a dozen out on the milk van every Friday or Saturday morning orders from customers, paunched but still in the skin ..... imagine that these days!   My pocket money was serious depleted:mad:

Edited by Walker570
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2 hours ago, oowee said:

Is it localised to certain areas? Here I have never seen so many hares. 

 

2 hours ago, washerboy said:

I have seen more pairing up this last month or so then I've seen in 10 yrs 

We have got Hares but only a fraction of the numbers we once had , I don't think any local estates have Hare shoots like they once did in the past , 100 / 200 were once common for a organised Hare shoot , the last one we had must had been 20+ years ago , the tenant farmers were mumping about the damage Hares were doing to the crops , our boss told the head keeper to shoot around 60 and then keep an eye on the numbers , we got a number of guns organised and done a walk one and stand one Hare drives , this was around the first week in March so we could see them before the Winter drilling grain crops got to high , we were averaging  15/20 a drive and after the third drive if I remember rightly we had close on to 50 , the keeper let us do one more drive and we called it a day just after dinner , we easily got what we were allowed to get and we didn't know at the time that this was the last day we shot Hares in a so called organised style .

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4 hours ago, washerboy said:

Without being critical the sporting way is to see a dog chase a hare, shooting them is easy and obvious the best pest control way. 

 

Always amazed me that some people will shoot a hare and think nothing of it, but will go nuts if a man hunts them with a good coursing dog. 

 

Years ago I was out hunting rabbits on land we had permission on in Wales with my old mate (sadly now gone) and his whippet bumped a hare from its seat. 

What a sight to see, the hare made an absolute fool of the dog. You could see the moment the hare dropped a gear and out of nowhere just exploded in speed and left the dog eating his dust. You'll never get to see such an amazing performance shooting them from hundreds of yards away! 

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Why would you shoot something so heavy then have to carry it for the rest of the day?

Learned my lesson in 1974 !

Funny enough out on the Pheasants a fortnight ago near Ilkley and saw over 40 Hares when we got to the Heather line. 

Still snow on the ground up there.

Grand things they are.

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23 hours ago, washerboy said:

I was a member of several greyhound coursing clubs and so seeing hares shot is sacroiliac in my book 

When Hare coursing was legal we used to have a club from Swaffham in Norfolk come on the estate for a days coursing , I used to go along as a beater and got the same pay as if we were game shooting .

I always enjoyed the day although I wouldn't had done it for my first hobby , very few Hares were killed , in fact it was a rarity , once the second dog got one and another Hare got ran over when it crossed a road , apart from that I didn't see many more come to grief .

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