LETTERS (March 24, 27 & 28) about the mountain hare population in Scotland brought back to mind the experience I had in the winter of about January 2012.

While driving north in the area of Dalwhinnie, in the dark at 11pm, a white mountain hare came out of nowhere, loping across the road at an angle towards me. Even swerving to the other side of the road, I was unable to avoid it without putting myself in the ditch, so it went under the car with a thump.

I stopped at the same spot several days later to try and retrieve a part that the collision had removed from the car trim, and after walking along the verge for about half a mile, came across six carcasses ranging from a skeleton to the fresh one I had struck. Which got me thinking: that would be 12 per mile and say over the five miles through the Drumochter Pass, 60 animals. Apparently, they grow a white winter coat from October through to January and decomposition will vary wildly depending on local conditions and temperature. Assuming it takes about two weeks for the body to decompose, and that their deaths are an ongoing process, that equates to about 120 per month. That's 480 over their winter coat period on one section of road on the A9.

Mountain hare populations on Scottish grouse moors can reach very high densities with up to 200 hares per square kilometre. A website I visited suggests that around 50 per cent of mountain hare populations are cyclic and show regular changes in density every five-15 years.

The reasons for these regular fluctuations remain unclear. Has anyone factored in the fact that there is such a huge loss due to them wandering on to roads and railway tracks across the Grampian range in winter?

Ian McDonald,

2 Stuarthill Drive, Maryburgh.