Stansted Airport has joined a drive to secure the future of the brown hare.

The Essex airport is one of seven locations across the UK chosen to kick-start the project.

Stansted has a number of brown hares and the airport has promised to donate an extra 20 hectares of land for the scheme.

The hare is classed as a "vulnerable species" due to declining numbers since the 1960s.

The three-year project aims to double the UK population.

Stansted environment manager Gary Cornell said: "The airport land provides a refuge for brown hare populations from some of the problems that the surrounding agricultural practices have on this species."

Published Monday, February 28, 2005

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