Overview
- Regional reports published Sunday and Monday show Germany holding about 19 field hares per square kilometer in spring 2025, the third straight record, with a nationwide spring‑to‑autumn gain of roughly 7 percent last year.
- Hotspots stand out: North Rhine‑Westphalia reports a record 34 hares per square kilometer, Hamburg rose from 39 in spring to nearly 58 in autumn, and Schleswig‑Holstein averaged 23 with peaks near 33 in Plön and Ostholstein.
- Hesse reports strong numbers overall and extreme local densities, highlighted by a March 2026 spring count of 244 hares per square kilometer in Wiesbaden‑Kloppenheim after years of habitat work.
- A myxomatosis variant first detected in hares in 2023 is causing local drops, including about a 20 percent decline from spring to autumn 2025 in parts of Schleswig‑Holstein, while hard‑hit areas in NRW have not fully rebounded.
- Experts credit a mild, dry winter and spring in 2024–25 and structure‑rich farmland for the upswing, with standardized night spotlight counts on fixed routes tracking trends as NGOs push broader habitat measures and some question ongoing hare hunting.