Overview
- The DJV’s spring 2025 census put field hares at 19 per square kilometer nationwide, lifted by the mild, dry 2024–25 season.
- Counts grew about 7% from spring to autumn 2025, based on the WILD program’s twice‑yearly night transects in roughly 400 reference areas.
- Regional highs include the Northwest lowlands at about 30 per square kilometer and Saarland at about 21, where the seasonal increase neared 16%.
- Weak regions remain, with Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern near six per square kilometer and Brandenburg at 2.8 in 2023, prompting BUND Brandenburg to seek a year‑round hunting ban.
- A mutated myxoma virus first seen in hares in 2023 has spread to more states, has no hare vaccine or treatment, and has left some hard‑hit North Rhine‑Westphalia populations unrecovered.