[Fleecewife]

This morning the hare which has raised many litters on our land over the last years was killed on the road that runs through our land. She must have had a leveret on each side.  We saw a large young hare in one of her favourite places.  Does anyone know how large a leveret needs to be to survive without a mother? This one looked to be about 3/4 her size, and she was big.  She usually has 3 at a time dotted around.


Someone must have been driving badly, as the road is currently closed so only local traffic, and very little of that 

[Steph Hen]

I don’t know, but would have thought that 3/4 adult size would have to be last years litter and ok to survive on it’s own..?
Brown or mountain?

My dad knew someone who found and reared a leveret and it used to lie as an adult in front of the fire. I love this image!

[Fleecewife]

They are brown hares.  So if it was a last years litter then there are young leverets lying around waiting for mum to come and feed them.  We won't be able to find them even if I knew how to raise leverets 

[Penninehillbilly]

So sorry FW, I found one once that had run up our lane, took it to vet but dead when we got there. Had been hit by a car.
Something so special about hares, magical creatures.

Once saw remains of a female pheasant on our farm track, unlaid eggs there. No patience some people 😢 (They aren't that common round here, we feed them over winter).

[doganjo]

A quick check in your rear mirror regularly is all it takes to know it's safe to do emergency stops or swerves.

Totally unnecessary killing of beautiful wild animals

[Fleecewife]

She's now just a skeleton, her flesh has become the buzzard and her fur is being used to line the nests of birds and mice    I'm still sad about her unnecessary death
The young hare remains here though we never found any babies

[doganjo]

I imagine of she had baby leverets they would die very quickly if she was gone a while.  Such a shame.

[landroverroy]

Only just spotted this, or I would have replied sooner. I realise, as Doganjo pointed out, that any youngsters would be dead now, but for future reference, my thoughts might be of use.


I did once find a leveret on a farm where I was working. It was more than 50 years ago, so I can't remember the details, or what happened to the mother. However, I did raise it and let it out again. At that time I would probably have given it baby formula milk, but now I would source goats milk, or look on the internet for something more suitable. 


As what to do on finding a dead female - I would first have a good look and see if she were lactating. If absolutely no udder development I'd assume there were no youngsters.  If she seemed to be producing milk, I would have a good search in the area with my dog on a lead, or even off the lead if the dog weren't a killer - for a really efficient search.
Hopefully though it was a once off.
I don't think it's fair though to necessarily blame the drivers. Animals/birds run out so quickly, and even at a steady 30mph it is often impossible to miss them. I imagine very few people would want to purposefully hit an animal - if only out of concern for the potential damage to their car.

[Fleecewife]

Thanks for the info Landroverroy.
My husband was once following a car whose driver took a deliberate swerve to squash a Mallard, in an area where there was signage warning there were ducks crossing, so I know people can be really sick! I only mentioned the road aspect because the road was closed at the time. I'm sure it was an accident, sadly one waiting to happen - the road which runs through our land can be a rat run at peak times - tiny but much used.
We did try to check if the hare was lactating, but hares apparently don't have 'udders' as such and the teats are almost invisible even when feeding young, a bit like seals. She was too badly damaged in fact for us to find any evidence of lactation, but we assumed because of the timing that she was.  We searched in the usual places she hides her leverets but couldn't see any, but where she was squashed was on the way to a new place and we couldn't find any there either - they could have been tiny. We are trying to train our JRT pup not to chase hares, and the Pointer isn't remotely interested in anything that isn't ball shaped!
Had we found any leverets then of course we would have tried to feed them and there would have been a question of here for anyone's experience    But if they existed then they are now dead, and our hopes are on the remaining older young hare which is definitely still around 

[chrismahon]

An important point to mention here is that if you do find leverets do not touch them, because they will be rejected by the mother if you do. This was highlighted in the annual 'permis de chasse' handbook, which French hunters are required to study before their written exam. They then have a practical before being allowed a licence. It's pretty complicated but the safety points are very clear, so it surprises me why there are so many accidents. I bought the book for the abundant nature information within it.


Accepting if you are trying to find them to hand rear in the certain knowledge their mother is dead, OK.

[doganjo]

An important point to mention here is that if you do find leverets do not touch them, because they will be rejected by the mother if you do. This was highlighted in the annual 'permis de chasse' handbook, which French hunters are required to study before their written exam. They then have a practical before being allowed a licence. It's pretty complicated but the safety points are very clear, so it surprises me why there are so many accidents. I bought the book for the abundant nature information within it..

That sounds an excellent idea, and having French gundogs I knew that was in place, but I'm not sure that hunters/rough shooters have to do an exam like that here in the UK

[chrismahon]

When I left the uk there was nothing like that in place [member=26320]doganjo[/member] . You just applied for a licence, had your shotgun security checked and then you were allowed out with it to do as you wanted, without any training whatsoever. The redeeming feature in the UK is that the lethal rounds they use for wild boar here are not allowed and they are what causes the problems. They are so strict here that to shoot clay pigeons (launched targets- not a breed of wildlife) you may need to pass a safety exam, depending on the club you must join to get your licence. Yes the UK is pretty sloppy with shotguns, but they don't have the accidents we have.


New initiative is to get all the firearms here registered as there are plenty in farmhouse cupboards waiting to be discovered. So to move or sell any without registration will soon be illegal. What is controlled very strictly here is buying ammunition- so ask your friend to get some and there is the real problem.


So hares are common here and on the permitted hunting list, as are blackbirds, but you must have a licence to hunt. Clayshooters can only buy 2.0-2.5mm diameter shot cartridges and are not permitted to shoot any wildlife. It is illegal to shoot anything with any air powered weapon, so shooting pigeons or rabbits as they do in the UK with an air rifle with the risk of injury to them is not permitted. The maximum shooting range of any animal is 30 metres, once again because of the risk of injury and suffering. It's all very different here but it doesn't necessarily work better.

[Fleecewife]

I wonder what we use to shoot wild boar in the UK? There are an awful lot breeding away and making nuisances of themselves so they do have to be culled in some areas. If you can't get the proper ammo then that's when woundings occur.


Blackbirds?    I thought killing and eating little birds went out of fashion with the Middle Ages, but to shoot them - surely there's nothing left. I was recently reading that at some point in the 1600s someone invented a crossbow to kill blackbirds - the mind boggles 


Our neighbour managed to shoot out the windscreen of one of our vehicles - fortunately no one was inside or it would have been murder.  Of course he slunk off and admitted nothing. So the UK isn't great with guns either.  My dad used to keep a loaded shotgun behind the kitchen door in the 70s when my brother's kids were around until we made him get rid of it - it was so badly cared for that it would have exploded in his face had he fired it. The local bobby didn't seem to ask about guns, although every farmer had a couple.  I respect but am petrified of guns although I'm a good shot, but so many people are careless and there are so many deaths of children in the US, often killed by their parents' weapons. I think only people who are properly trained in gun use and safety should be allowed to use them and in the UK at least wild hunting should not be allowed.
I decided to give up my gun licence so now only Mr F has one, but as he is ex-Military I have every confidence in his firearms safety and knowledge. He really only uses a gun to put down an injured animal, never hunting. 


When I was young, my granny made us jugged hare - it was the most delicious meal I've ever had, never to be repeated.