Irish hares dazzled in the spotlight of extinction

ANOTHER LIFE:'I AM CONVINCED," wrote Dr James Fairley, emeritus professor of zoology at NUI, in a recent book, "that the number of people who can be depended upon to distinguish brown and Irish hares in the field is extremely few. This raises the hoary question of whether there have, in fact, been any brown hares in Ireland at all for many years."

Since then, he has had to weigh evidence from scientists in his native Belfast that more than half the hares in mid-Ulster are, in fact, of the European species. They may number up to 2,000, and have other relatives in west Tyrone. This presumes, of course, that the few who could tell one species of hare from another included those behind the spotlights on pick-up trucks that dazzled the Ulster countryside a few autumns ago. They were assessing hare abundance by "nocturnal distance sampling" in a project for the north's Environment and Heritage Service.

Results from the intensive driveabouts in 2005 suggested that, after long decline, Ulster's hare numbers may have "stabilised at relatively low densities". But the share of brown hares frozen in the spotlights has since prompted alarm. Introduced to Ireland well over a century ago, and long thought negligible in survival, they are now regarded for the first time as an invasive, competitive species.

"Our concern," says Dr Neil Reid of Queen's University Belfast, lead researcher in the hare project, "is that if the current situation is left unchecked, in 25 years' time we could be talking about European and Irish hares, rather than grey and red squirrels." Given climate change and its likely impacts on Irish farming, he suggests, the brown hare's naturalisation "may pose a significant risk to the ecological security and genetic integrity of the Irish hare."

A worried Ulster Wildlife Trust has set up an expert committee on what to do about it. But Dr Reid and Prof Ian Montgomery, the QUB head of animal ecology, seem to have small doubt. In a paper published by the Royal Irish Academy, they look back to Ireland's eradication of muskrats and roe deer during the early 20th century. "Immediate action," they advise, " is often the only opportunity for cost-effective eradication." They urge more research to see if this is warranted by the risk to the Irish hare, Lepus timidus hibernicus.

How do you tell Lepus europaeus from the native Irish animal? The big difference at a distance is the brown hare's exceptionally long ears: the Irish hare's Arctic genes keep its ears shorter, to save losing heat, and its head is smaller and rounder. Both hares are mainly brown and much the same size, but the "invader" is a sandy-brown while the native species is more often a rich russet (and sometimes almost black).

The European hare is a lowland species native to a central swathe of continental Europe, but its historical value for food and skins has spread it far beyond, to North and South America, Australasia and even the Falklands. It was introduced to Britain before the Romans, but remained absent from Ireland until the mid-19th century, when it was brought in for hare coursing. Most of the imported populations died out after some years, certainly in the south, and while reports of modern sightings have persisted in the north, there were only two scientifically acceptable reports of brown hares, in Tyrone and east Donegal, as late as 2000.

In Britain and elsewhere, mountain hares and brown hares usually keep to habitats separated by altitude: in parts of Scotland, even a mountain fence could separate them. In Ireland, the native hare was long considered an island subspecies of mountain hare that had adapted to living at every altitude, right down to the shore. Today, genetics stake its claim as a full species. But its lowland feeding overlaps with the normal range of the brown hare, which brings the two species into competition. There has also been hybridisation, which might explain the so-called "thrush" hares, with longer ears and speckled coats, known to coursing clubs around Strabane.

The dominance of the Irish hare may have held back the survival and spread of the brown hare over the last 100 to 150 years, but its numbers in Ulster may now have reached a critical mass ecologically. There are also the "unconfirmed reports," mentioned by Dr Tom Hayden and Dr Rory Harrington, in their 2000 book Exploring Irish Mammals, "that brown hares from Britain or Europe are still being released in Ireland in small numbers".

Prediction models have suggested warmer and drier summers for Ireland (oh yes?) with more arable farming that would favour the brown hare.

The Irish hare may yet take to the hills, but "extinction by hybridisation" is the risk that most concerns Reid and Montgomery. There have been observations, they report ominously, "of Irish and brown hares sparring and boxing during the peak mating season".

Meanwhile, Dr Reid is eager for brown hare reports from anywhere in Ireland (e-mail neil.reid@qub.ac.uk)