SCOTLAND'S 'Glorious Twelfth' was once an annual opportunity for the game shooting sector to hit the headlines with light-hearted tales about the race to get the first grouse to a London restaurant – but nowadays, the date is a flashpoint for confrontation with conservationists.

This year proved no exception, with RSPB Scotland choosing the date to release research results claiming that grouse moor management has reduced mountain hare populations in the eastern Highlands to less than 1% of what they were.

The birdlife charity said that the figures were based on six decades of spring counts on moorland managed for red grouse shooting and on neighbouring mountain land, analysed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

While there had been a gradual decline last century as forestry overtook hare habitats, the RSPB said that declines had since increased 'dramatically' to over 30% every year, due to grouse moor hare culls, leading to counts in 2017 of less than 1% of original levels in 1954,

Dr Adam Watson, who was lead author of the work, said: "Having counted mountain hares across the moors and high tops of the eastern Highlands since 1943, I find the decline in numbers of these beautiful animals both compelling and of great concern. We need the Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage to take action to help these iconic mammals of the hill – I hope they will listen to the voice of scientific research."

RSPB Scotland's head of species, Duncan Orr Ewing, was on hand to make the explicit link between the research and the charity's determined campaign to see grouse moors made subject to official licensing: "We consider that large-scale population reduction culls are both illegal under EU law and unwarranted as a method for controlling grouse disease.

“We expect this subject to be given thorough consideration by the current independent grouse moor enquiry, which is looking at how grouse moors can be managed sustainably and within the law.”

Responding, the Scottish Moorland Group shot back: “This research is very much out of kilter with other respected research on mountain hares. As recently as October 2017, Scottish Natural Heritage reported to the Scottish Parliament that evidence of a national decline in mountain hares since the mid-1990s is not conclusive.

"This latest research also flies in the face of what estate owners and land managers see every day on the ground – that hare populations are very high," claimed the SMG.

“It will, however, come as little surprise that RSPB Scotland has chosen to release this paper, continuing its political campaigning against grouse moor management, on the day that the season gets underway and it is obviously an attempt to influence the ongoing independent review of grouse shooting which includes mountain hare management."

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association agreed: “This work is largely at odds with what is being seen on the ground in grouse moor areas, where hare numbers – in good breeding seasons – remain very, very high, sometimes reaching densities of up to 200 hares per sq km.

“Many of the gamekeepers in the survey area didn't see the author undertake counts, even when they were working in these areas daily, and the study's methods have now been superseded by the new science conducted by GWCT and James Hutton Institute for SNH, which was published in January this year," said SGA.

“A lot of tax payers’ money was spent conducting that work on how to count hares as accurately as possible and gamekeepers are committed to adopting this in 2018 onwards so the true picture emerges as to where mountain hares may be struggling."