Over a million of hares hopped around Polish fields in the early nineties. However, their population has halved and now it amounts to a mere half a million. The situation is dramatic: the common hare may enter the Red List of Threatened Species. “If we do not stop this population drop, the hare may soon become extinct,” says Magdalena Misiorek from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW).
Not that long ago Poland had to export hares, but now the circumstances call for importing them, the idea being encouraged by numerous hunting clubs. “The hare population in some regions such as Pomerania and the Białystok area is so sparse that there is no way of restoring it. Over a thousand imported hares were let out this year alone,” says Eugeniusz Gwiazdowski who imports hares from Slovakia. Even though the hare is still game, hunters have decided to suspend hunts in areas, where there is less than 5 per 100 hectares. Presumably, the import of hares is the only way to save the species, since the causes of their death are not easy to prevent. The hare is threatened by changes in agriculture. Due to large scale land cultivation the boundary strips covered with shrubs and trees, which give shelter to hares, are disappearing. Another threat is posed by the fox: owing to vaccination against rabies, the population of the red beast of prey, which hunts up to 40 hares a year, has grown fourfold.
Other catalysts for the extinction of hares are epidemics, cars as well as a growing number of roads, devoid of subterranean passages for animals. “At the moment there is little hope for hares,” says Misiorek, the first person to carry out telemetric research on the hare population in Poland. Animals carrying transmitter collars round their necks are let loose in the woods near Garwolin. “These transmitters let me know how many hares survive. If an animal dies, I can find it and determine the cause of its death,” she explains. The research is also supposed to check whether the restoration of Polish woods and fields with imported hares will help rescue the species. “We managed to maintain their population level in places where the research was conducted,” says Misiorek. “The extinction of the hare, which has always been probable in our ecosystem, would be an appalling tragedy,” explains Michał Kaczorowski, editor of Przyroda Polska, a magazine devoted to Polish nature. “The common hare is important not only for the ecosystem but also for culture and tradition: it is present in fairytales and legends. Its extinction is the worst possible scenario,” he adds.
Dziennik
