Lancashire Brown Hare Survey

In Lancashire the Biodiversity Partnership are involved in two aspects of survey for Brown Hare, a BAP priority species.

Brown Hare Website

The website www.brownhare.org.uk was set up to encourage and accept records for any brown hares seen across Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, but you could put in any records you see! Set up by Richard Burkmar, and hosted by Merseyside Biobank, this is a simple way for you to put in details of any Brown Hares you see while out and about, and provide important information on hare populations and whereabouts, so get recording!!

Richard has also provided below this useful summary of records as an atlas of records, to the tetrad scale, with more red the marking, the more of a hotspot for casual records:

Map showing sightings of Brown Hares in Lancashire (79kb)

1km Grid Square Survey

Co-ordinated with the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Merseyside and Manchester , this formal survey relies on the great work of volunteers to survey 1km squares for Brown Hare, early one morning or late afternoon in April and May each year.

Training events are organised each year in March, and in 2010 this has been done in conjunction with Wyre Borough Council at Bleasdale, and also with United Utilities at Rivington. The training covers Brown Hare ecology and all you need to know to get going with the survey. Obviously hares can be illusive once they are hunckered down in their forms, so we also include a session outside to spot hares while walking around a farm or land holding. Bleasdale in particular is a hot spot.

The survey generates a large amount of data, so we are currently organising an up to date report on hare populations in Lancashire , but the most current report below is from 2006.

Brown Hare Survey Results from West Pennine Moors and other parts of Lancashire 2006 (4.65mb)

The Future

The partnership is currently working regionally with partnerships in Manchester and Merseyside in developing a Brown Hare Project, which is being led by Lucy Lush at Greater Manchester Ecology Unit.