Seven year decline of mountain hare abundance in the Peak District, England

In England the mountain hare is found only in the Peak District, and is a remnant population surviving from translocations from Scotland during the 1870s, of the genetically distinct subspecies Lepus timidus scoticus.  Population monitoring undertaken by Manchester Metropolitan University and Queen’s University Belfast began in 2017, continuing to 2021.  Subsequently, monitoring was conducted by Natural England, during 2022-2024, reporting for two sites, Bleaklow and Margery Hill, previously shown having the highest densities of mountain hares.  Standardised survey and analytical techniques remained identical to previous monitoring, enabling evaluation of change in absolute estimates of hare density from 2017-2024.
Using distance sampling analysis, results showed a statistically significant decline of density from 2017=15.9 hares km-2 (95% CI 10.4-24.4) to 2024=6.7 hares km-2  (95% CI 3.9-11.5) (p-value = 0.0001). When stratifying by habitat class, highest densities ..., We have submitted our observation data, gathered from 2017 to 2024 by walking by daytime a fixed series of transects repeated in winter each year and recording observations to mountain hares on two locations: Bleaklow and Margery Hill in the Peak District, England, UK, with distance sampling principles. 
Please refer to the leading text book Introduction to Distance Sampling by Buckland et al. 2001 for extensive information on this approach., , # Data from: Seven year decline of mountain hare abundance in the Peak District, England

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmstj](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmstj)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Data set for Distance Sampling Analysis**

**Descriptions**

The data is as follows:

Region: This is a grouping of the data according to the stratification analysis employed.

Area: This measures the entire visual area available for survey in square kilometres.

Line transect: These are the individual square transects which were surveyed, each transect given a unique letter code.  Each transect was a four sided 1km square which matched that of the grid system used on the observer’s GPS device, was followed repeatedly each year.

Line length: This is the recorded actual distance surveyed in kilometres.  The distance is sometimes greater than 4km, because the surveyor navigated around or though deep cloughs and valleys. 

Perp distance*: This is the distance to the mou...,