Shooting hares in England will be banned for most of the year, ministers are expected to announce.
The new close season will stop hare hunting during the breeding months between February and October.
Critics branded the change “virtue signalling” because it is already illegal to sell hares during their breeding season.
Hares are also known to breed year-round.
The animal welfare strategy is also expected to ban trail hunting, where hounds follow a scent rather than a live animal, when it is announced in full on Monday.
There are currently 817,500 hares in Britain, according to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.
It is said that hare numbers have plummeted in a century but population estimates in 1900 are vague.
Stephen Fry has put his name to a letter claiming numbers are down but farmers and gamekeepers disagree. In places such as East Anglia, crop growth year round gives hares abundant food sources.
Many estates and farms shoot hundreds of hares a year and see no change in the population.
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, criticised the “virtue-signalling legislation”.
He told The Telegraph: “In some areas numbers are so high that they do significant crop damage and local culls take place during the winter. It is already illegal to sell hares inside their breeding season and despite being asked on several occasions the Government has not been able to produce any evidence that hares are being shot in the summer.
“This is virtue-signalling legislation which will make no difference to the hare population. It is a shame the Government cannot focus on issues that would have a real benefit for wildlife and the countryside.”
Richard Negus, a hedge-layer and conservationist, added that controlled culling was a vital part of conservation.
He said: “Here in mid Suffolk I am surrounded by farms with healthy hare populations. That abundance is not a coincidence. It is a result of habitat creation, management and controlled culling as and when needed. It is the three-legged stool of conservation.”
The Hares Preservation Act 1892 prohibits the sale of hares or leverets between Mar 1 and July 31, with restaurants banned from having it on menus during that period.
The Telegraph has approached the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs for comment.