Let the hare sit

The Irish hare, one of Ireland’s longest established mammals, is found on both upland and lowland habitats.  Irish hare forage, rest and breed on a wide range of farm habitats such as grassland, arable, moorland and bogs.  Although the Irish hare was historically widespread and common throughout all of Ireland it is now scarce in some areas.

They are rarely seen during the daytime as they prefer to lie in the rough cover of rushes, bushes or hedgerows.  They do not use burrows, but form a patch of flattened vegetation to rest on.  When darkness falls they will often travel long distances to feed on a variety of grasses and other vegetation, the quality of which is very important to the female doe during lactation.

The Irish hare courtship and mating ritual takes place from late winter through to early summer with the characteristic 'mad' chasing, leaping and boxing behaviour which accompanies it. Hares can reproduce two or three times a year. The two-five young hares, or leverets, are born furred and have open eyes at birth; they wean after about four weeks.

The peak of the Irish hare breeding period is during April, May and June.  However disturbance due to agricultural practices and machinery negatively impacts on hare breeding success, particularly the survival of young leverets.  Their survival is helped by providing areas with minimal disturbance and tall vegetation close to areas of grassland pasture for adult hares and leverets to lie-up in during the day, especially during the main breeding season,.

The delayed cutting and grazing option under the NI Countryside Management Scheme was introduced to help the Irish hare population.  Areas where farmers have chosen this option cannot be grazed during April and May and no field operations are permitted during April, May and June. Rush control must be undertaken after 15 July where rush cover is more than one half of the field. Where the grass is cut for silage, round bales or hay, cutting must not commence until 1 July or later.  When cutting or topping takes place a 3m strip must be left uncut around the full field margin and/or leave each field corner uncut, retaining at least 20 percent of the field uncut to provide shelter for Irish hares.

For more information about the delayed cutting and grazing option, contact your local DARD Countryside Management Delivery Staff.

The Irish hare benefits from leaving the first silage cut to July, (photo courtesy Mervyn Guthrie)