Irish Hares

[mossyh07 64]

 

Quick Video showing the Hares around the Belfast Airport. Nice to see how they've adapted

[neil cooney 10,416]

Very nice. Dublin airport is very similar and the hare population is monitored and culled to keep the number at the same level.

Anyone remember the huge gathering of hares that used to be outside the gates of what used to be Butlins/Mosney in Co. Meath. They would barely get out of your way if you walked towards them.

Funny but they dissapeared when Mosney was turned in to an asylum camp.

[Leeview 791]

Very nice. Dublin airport is very similar and the hare population is monitored and culled to keep the number at the same level.

Anyone remember the huge gathering of hares that used to be outside the gates of what used to be Butlins/Mosney in Co. Meath. They would barely get out of your way if you walked towards them.

Funny but they dissapeared when Mosney was turned in to an asylum camp.

Surely thats enough reason to get rid of the asylum seekers but send them west

Y.I.S Leeview

[iceman001979 1,316]

have bit ground up around the airport few hares on them but you would think there be lot more with the number off them inside . Instead culling them why don't they net they and put them where there is none.

[boyo 1,398]

some good videos atached to this .

[jackson2kaii8 5]

Very nice. Dublin airport is very similar and the hare population is monitored and culled to keep the number at the same level.

Anyone remember the huge gathering of hares that used to be outside the gates of what used to be Butlins/Mosney in Co. Meath. They would barely get out of your way if you walked towards them.

Funny but they dissapeared when Mosney was turned in to an asylum camp.

still are few hares up at mosneys!was up there bout 5 years ago at a comunity games.theres also hares in the car parks up in dublin!

[mossyh07 64]

Its nice to see hares in those numbers about but inbreeding will eventually take its toll on them in places where they are so plentiful, introducing hares from different areas to dilute the blood is the obvious answer but our friends in the Parks and Wildlife Services obviously know better . Pitty that the people that actually have great knowledge about hares by watching and hunting them day after day are shunned while the people who read a few books in college about hares are in charge.

[neil cooney 10,416]

I wouldn't worry about inbreeding in local hare populations as it's always been the way. There used to be localised populations of hares that were quiet distinctive. For example there used to be yellow hares around Donabate in North County Dublin and I knew a place in Meath that had a lot of white hares that even in the Summer carried white patches.

But nowadays the coursing clubs don't return the particular hares that they netted to the particular area. They just return the same number that they took from there.

Hares used to be marked so that they could be identified for the area they were to be released. But not nowadays. The wildlife officer just stands over you making sure the hares are properly released.

As a result the hares breeding has been mixed.

 

There's a sewage works in County Louth that I worked on years ago. They have a population of 16 hares within the grounds. When I was there one of the staff filmed a doe giving birth to 4 leverates outside a window. It was a brilliant bit of footage. And of course a few hours later she had moved and seperated her offspring.

If I remember correctly the population of hares in Dublin airport is 72 or 73.

And yes, coursing men are arrested every year for tresspass, LOL.

[Blue one 89]

 

And yes, coursing men are arrested every year for tresspass, LOL.

 

Id say that is all they could arrest them for.

That was a good clip, but not that real life, as said, the man with the dog, chasing them, are the ones that know about them, not the book worms or internet hunters.

Its great to see them like that in those numbers, like it use to be, before the greed of silage making took over the farming comunity!!

[neil cooney 10,416]

Blue one I agree with you a lot. But the silage IMO is only a small part of the problem. Where I grew up was one of the first places silage became popular (the first man to cut silage in Ireland was 3 miles away) but still I often seen 14 and 15 hares sitting together. But not nowadays.

One thing we never used to see was gangs of coursers, one or two lads yes, but gangs ? No.

I used to be one of those lads that would be out looking for one for the pot, but not in a gang.

I love to see a running dog in behind a hare twisting and turning whatever the outcome may be. Or in the case of the organised coursing I enjoy I love watching a couple of greyhounds coursing under rules.

Single handed ?? Fair play to them but we meet several gangs out coursing every year and I never see one dog behind a hare. I've seen 4,5 and 6 dogs behind hares. I've seen 3 hares chopped in one field in 10 minutes. Not sport.

A fantastic creature like the hare deserves better.

Although illegal I have no problem with a lad coursing a hare with a lurcher or two, best of luck to him and better still if he catches it and brings it home and eats it.

But in the last few years in my opinion the biggest danger to the hare is the buzzard who is being released by those who are against those who hunt the hare.

[mossyh07 64]

Blue one and Neil you have both hit the nail straight on the head. If more lads did the decent thing and walked the feilds with a mongrel or two and went home after they had a couple of runs there would be alot more sport to go around. I think lads who are netting for money are putting fair dents in the hare populations of certain areas because they are not releasing them back into the areas they came from. But birds of prey have definatly become more plentiful over the years and they will take out as many leverets as they can find, and i know alot of lurcher lads disagree with how organised coursing clubs carry on in there areas but they seem to be the only people making a real difference in hare conservation and protection

[lurcherman 28]

 

Quick Video showing the Hares around the Belfast Airport. Nice to see how they've adapted

 

 

[Blue one 89]

Blue one I agree with you a lot. But the silage IMO is only a small part of the problem. Where I grew up was one of the first places silage became popular (the first man to cut silage in Ireland was 3 miles away) but still I often seen 14 and 15 hares sitting together. But not nowadays.

One thing we never used to see was gangs of coursers, one or two lads yes, but gangs ? No.

I used to be one of those lads that would be out looking for one for the pot, but not in a gang.

I love to see a running dog in behind a hare twisting and turning whatever the outcome may be. Or in the case of the organised coursing I enjoy I love watching a couple of greyhounds coursing under rules.

Single handed ?? Fair play to them but we meet several gangs out coursing every year and I never see one dog behind a hare. I've seen 4,5 and 6 dogs behind hares. I've seen 3 hares chopped in one field in 10 minutes. Not sport.

A fantastic creature like the hare deserves better.

Although illegal I have no problem with a lad coursing a hare with a lurcher or two, best of luck to him and better still if he catches it and brings it home and eats it.

But in the last few years in my opinion the biggest danger to the hare is the buzzard who is being released by those who are against those who hunt the hare.

 

Totally agree Neil.

I hunt alone, most of the time, sometimes, i go with a very decent lad, every now and then.

If i get a hare, im happy, as personally, i think their is a lot of eating in a fully grown hare.

I have enough for my self and my 2 dogs.

I also think, what Mossy said about lads netting them for money, is bringing the numbers down, its sad to hear this...

As for the buzzard, spot on, they are taking a lot of leverets, witnessed by a few i know and they should not, be introduced at all!

I hunted the hare in the 's and it was great to see them in high numbers, plenty for the lad that wanted to get one for the pot, then i started to notice, in the 90's, hares declining fast..!

I hope, one day, they make a come back, to the numbers we once had.

[iceman001979 1,316]

There is a mountain beside me and before l got into hunting used watch 3 men walking there luchers would say about 15 between the 3 off them running loose hunting up everything they could and when they put hare up it was like a train after it the men l didn't know at the time but are good friends now where just walking there dogs together but they must took every hare on that mountain .They have got out hunting and the past 8 years or so the mountain has made such a come back counted 10 in the quarry the other day getting out snow when l was up ferreting and in the summer was walking though sheep fields must put 16 out off cover and was great to see.The nature res let 6 hares go few months back trying to put hares back on the mountain lmao what they don't know is you need dog or few to really see how many hares are on the mountain its great that there is so many back and hope most survive this snow and breed this summer its good knowing that if you go for walk with the dogs your 90% till get run or two but lots cover and hard for dogs catch but great two see.Your talking about buzzards funny that two come every year till breed on the cliffs but you see them feed on cows sheep more then hunting themselves.

[Guest madman]

and where seeing more shot here by the syndicates to keep the didiguys of