A giant postcard calling for an end to mountain hare culling has been handed to the UK’s largest national park.

Animal welfare charity OneKind collected more than 8000 signatures for the card as part of its campaign against the culls in the Cairngorms.

Mountain hares in Scotland are protected from 1 March to 31 July. Outside of this period, the animals can be shot freely for sport and are also killed as part of large-scale culls to manage land for red grouse shooting.

The only official estimate found that 24,529 mountain hares were killed in 2006/07.

Our national parks should be safe havens for wildlife

OneKind director Harry Huyton said: “Our national parks should be safe havens for wildlife, yet mountain hares continue to be killed in huge numbers in the Cairngorms.

“I’m delighted that over 8000 people have joined us today to ask the park authority and the Scottish Government to step up and put a stop to the indiscriminate and widespread culls and commercial hunting within the park.”

In total, 8625 people added their name to the back of the postcard and a further 500 people sent their own individual postcards to the park calling for the culls to be stopped.

Grant Moir, chief executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA), has promised to review the park’s stance as part of an ongoing government review.

He said: “Mountain hares are an important species in the Cairngorms and we want to ensure healthy populations across their natural range.

“The CNPA board recently discussed the issues around mountain hares and we will further consider our approach as part of our input to the independently-led group which is being set up by Scottish Government to look at the environmental impact of grouse moor management.”