formation on the number of brown hares left in Switzerland because of its focus on selected areas of the country. Even the latest hunting statistics are of limited value; hare hunting is illegal in numerous cantons, because the animal is on the red list of endangered species. But there is still one relatively reliable if gruesome statistic documenting the sustained decline of the brown hare: the number of wild animals hit and killed by cars and agricultural machinery. Hares accounted for around 4,000 such deaths in the 1980s. Nowadays, the figure is only about 1,000. Bad habitat Brown hares lead a particularly precarious existence in Switzerland’s Central Plateau region. “Things are not looking good at all for brown hares in the flatter, most intensely farmed parts of the country,” says Claudine Winter. Amid vast swathes of agricultural land, there are insufficient hedgerows and other biodiversity-enhancing boundaries for hares to shelter their young. Out in the open, they are an easy catch for foxes, wildcats, and birds of prey. Specific farming practices have also led to their decimation. Winter: “If farmers waited until as late as possible to mow their fields, this would help to protect hares – and roe deer too.” But there are no regulations in Switzerland to encourage this practice. Does the plight of the brown hare have any bearing on children’s Easter experience? Barely, given that chocolate bunnies are the first members of the Leporidae family that many will ever see. Even in neighbourhoods like Hasenbühl or Hasenacker, the The ancestors of the brown hares that still live in Switzerland originally came from the steppes of Ukraine and southern Russia. They made their way over in the Neolithic period – along with crop farming. Photo: iStock likelihood of seeing a brown hare is extremely low to zero. Residential areas are completely alien to hares. Foxes are becoming much more common in built-up areas. Prolific Hares are seen as fertility symbols. The female can bear offspring up to four times a year. Indeed, few other wild animals breed as prolifically when the habitat is right. Nevertheless, it is the chocolatiers who hold the record: Lindt & Sprüngli produces around 150 million of its iconic Gold Bunnies every year around the world. Swiss Review / May 2023 / No.3 15
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