Best of Natural History Radio - Living World from the Archives - Mountain Hares

Download Living World from the Archives - Mountain Hares

The Mountain Hare, sometimes called the Arctic or Blue Hare, is a native of Scotland but to most people's surprise a colony also live in England.

Brett Westwood relives programmes from The Living World archives. This episode from 2005 Sarah Pitt heads into a wintry Peak District with the late Derek Yaldon in search of mountain hares, one of the great relics of the ice age. Nestled into the hills and as white as white during the winter these animals are very at home straddling the Pennine Way. But how did they get here? To discover this Sarah Pitt is led by zoologist Derek Yalden deep into wintry moors to find these animals, and much to his surprise is given a special device by Sarah to enable him to see the hares at night, something he's never done before. So a double surprise. Hares by day and hares by night. It certainly seems from Sarah and Derek's encounter that the night time is the right time for Mountain Hares.

Published on Sunday, 7th January 2018.

Available Podcasts from Best of Natural History Radio

Subscribe to Best of Natural History Radio

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Best of Natural History Radio webpage.