Mountain hares are an important part of Scotland’s uplands. A 2019 assessment by NatureScot considered mountain hare conservation status as unfavourable.

Through the 2020 Animals and Wildlife (Scotland) Act, they were added to Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which means they have full protection. They may only be killed under licence for certain limited reasons as listed in section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Ongoing monitoring of mountain hares is important to support any licence application for control, and to improve the assessment of conservation status, both within the core range on managed moorland in the central highlands, and in other parts of Scotland.

This Guidance outlines two approaches for counting mountain hares:

1. A night-time counting methodology approved by NatureScot used primarily by land managers

2. A citizen science approach for wider incidental daytime recording of mountain hares.