New conservation project for hares in Scotland

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Tuesday, 08 April 2008

Scottish Power offers a bounty for live hares as the company aims to reintroduce them to a site near its wind farm at Beinn an Tuirc

A power company’s new scheme is offering estates a bounty of £30 for every live hare they can supply as part of a conservation project at a wind farm. The idea has been branded as “hare-brained” by the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association (SGA).

ScottishPower Renewables hopes to reintroduce a population of mountain hares 4km to 5km from its Beinn an Tuirc windfarm site in Argyll and Bute. It
is hoped that the animals will draw a pair of golden eagles away from the wind turbines by acting as prey.

“What is being suggested is both cruel and impractical. Hares are extremely nervous creatures and if you catch one it’s likely to die from fright before you are able to transfer it to a new patch of ground. Releasing it in an area that is not keepered and where foxes and crows live in abundance is utterly pointless,” SGA’s chairman Alex Hogg told Shooting Times.

He added: “Golden eagles will fly wherever they want to believe they can be directed to a safe feeding ground is laughable. It certainly won’t stop them flying into the wind turbines.”

The rest of this article appears in 10th April issue of Shooting Times.

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