There is sad news, as climate change threatens England's beautiful mountain hares with extinction (again).
The People's Trust for Endangered Species is researching the mountain hares so that they can better understand the cute animals. They highlight several threats facing mountain hares today. The biggest threat mountain hares face today, seems to be climate change. But, the mountain hares also face other things that threaten them in the wild, including roads, being hunted, and being persecuted by people. These threats could lead to the extinction of mountain hares once again in England.
If mountain hares were to go extinct in England, it wouldn't be the first time that they have gone extinct, as, they also went extinct in the last ice age in England.
Mountain hares did survive in other parts of the UK though after the last ice age event. Mountain hares survived in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. Thanks to the survival of these cute hares in other parts of the UK, they were were reintroduced back into England in recent history: Mountain hares were reintroduced into England during the late Victorian era (in the late 1800s).
One of the places that Mountain hares were reintroduced into England is the stunning Peak District.
Today, the Peak District has a small population of Mountain Hares. The estimated Mountain hare population is 2,500 individuals in the Peak District, which is a small population. These are the only mountain hares existing in England today.
Mountain hares adapt to the winter in the UK by changing the colour of their fur. The Mountain hares change the colour of their fur to white during the winter months in the UK, this white fur helps keep them camouflaged in the snow - changing their fur colour during the winter helps to keep the mountain hares safe from predators.
With climate change warming the planet up and reducing the amount of wintry weather in places like the UK, it could harm wild animals like mountain hares. It could harm mountain hares during the winter because a lack of snow during the winter months in the UK. An increasing lack of snow would make mountain hares more vulnerable to predators.
Today in England, mountain hares are only found living in the wild in the Peak District. When people reintroduced mountain hares into England during the late Victorian era, they tried to reintroduce mountain hares in other parts of England too. However, that wasn't successful.
Sadly, mountain hares are under threat of extinction in England (and in Europe). Through being threatened with extinction, we could sadly, once again, see these cute animals disappearing from the wild of England.
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