'Hares In UK Culture, Ecology And History': Baroness Helic On A Show Highlighting The Plight Of These 'Magical' Creatures
'Hare Ball': By Andy Parkinson, taken in the Scottish Highlands in 2019, and winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice award | Image © Andy Parkinson
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Featuring photography from leading wildlife photographers across Britain, take a moment out from the stresses of parliamentary life to be enchanted by this week-long exhibition
Those who spend time in the countryside may know the quiet excitement of seeing a hare. At one moment, the field is completely still. At the next, a hare suddenly rises from its form, ears upright and eyes alert, before running swiftly and silently across the land. It feels like being privy to a secret – one that is wild, graceful and familiar, and yet just beyond our understanding.
Hare Tango by Sarah Hanson, taken in West Yorkshire in 2022 | Image © Sarah Hanson
Hares are not only a vital part of our landscape and food chain; they have also played a part in our culture for millennia – symbolising renewal, self-sacrifice and virtue, in Celtic festivals, folktales and Roman carvings, and in contemporary art, poetry and photography. They are reminders of the untamed world, which so many of us hope to protect.
Shooting hares during their breeding season is profoundly damaging
Hares face growing challenges – including intensive agriculture, hunting and climate change. As the government recently confirmed, “an estimated 80 per cent reduction in the brown hare’s population in England and Wales over the last 100 years is clearly a cause for concern”.
Untitled by Chris Armstrong, taken in North Lancashire in 2024 | Image © Chris Armstrong
Shooting hares during their breeding season leads to a profoundly damaging combination of population shrinkage and orphaning of leverets, with consequent animal welfare impacts. This is why I am campaigning for a close season for hares – to provide these animals the respite they need during their breeding season.
Inspired and encouraged by the artists, photographers and poets who spend hours observing and capturing hares, I am co-hosting an exhibition, together with Monica Harding, the Liberal Democrat MP for Esher and Walton, in the Upper Waiting Hall all of this week to celebrate the ecological, cultural and historical importance of hares. Please spare a moment to visit and be enchanted too.
Baroness Helic is a Conservative peer
Hares in UK culture, ecology and history
Co-hosted by: Baroness Helic and Monica Harding MP
Venue: Upper Waiting Hall, House of Commons – from Monday 1 to Friday 5 December
