A total of 84 European hares collected from eleven Serbian regions investigated upon cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) presence. Strong statistically significant correlations between Cd concentrations in kidney and liver were registered in animals older than 12 months. Significant differences between Zn concentrations in liver in comparison to kidney were found within every single age group with exception of the oldest. Negative correlation (Ps-Pearson's correlation) between Zn and Cd concentrations were found in liver samples within the age group of 12 months (Ps = -0.67, p = 0.004).
Climatic factors, especially temperature and precipitations, greatly affect the dynamics of the hare number and population. Climatic factors directly affect the physiological and reproductive processes of both individuals and entire populations, or indirectly, through the availability of food, competition with other species, predators and other. The age structure of the hare population at the end of the period of reproduction is an important indicator of the population growth that is used for planning the level of explotation of the hare population (hunting). The rational use of the hare's population is one of the most important protection procedures and it should be well monitored and controlled by the hunting professionals. We used the average monthly temperature and the sum of monthly precipitations in the hare reproductive period (March-September) during ten years (2000-2009), together with the percent of young in the hare population, on the territory of Ba~ka, for multiple regression (stepwise) analysis. Results of the regression analysis show an association between the percentage of young hares and the influence of climatic factors. The average temperature and sum of precipitation in June, are the strongest predictor of the percent of young in the hare's population in Ba~ka. According to the coefficient of determination (R 2 =0.50) climatic parameters account for 50% of variance in the percentage of young hares in Ba~ka. The regression correlation coefficient of all factors was R=0.70, which is on the border line between medium and high correlation.
The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of two heavy metals, lead and cadmium, in European hare liver samples, collected in agro biotope of northern Serbian province Vojvodina. Heavy metals such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) do not have any biological function in the animal body; however, they can be found due to the pollution in the environment. For the purpose of this study, in 196 samples from 17 different locations hare livers were analyzed for the occurrence of lead and cadmium. All samples were taken from hares harvested during the regular hunting season. The average value for lead in all analyzed samples was 884 µg/kg fresh weight (fw), with the range 59–3700 µg/kg fw. Only samples from two locations had the average concentration of lead which was within the permitted limit by the Serbian regulation. The average cadmium level in all samples was 243 µg/kg fw. The range of all samples was from 0 to 1414 µg/kg fw. Our research indicates that out of two investigated heavy metals, the occurrence of lead is more common and at a higher concentration in the agricultural development region of Vojvodina.
In order to study the influence of climatic factors on the participation of the young in the population of brown hare in Vojvodina, in the period from 1993 to 2008 data have been processed for the average monthly temperature and rainfall by month of brown hare reproductive activity (March-August) on the % of participation of the young in the population. The average number of brown hare in Vojvodina in the mentioned period was 261,216, with expressive cycle. The minimum number of 204,528 brown was recorded in 2001, and the largest in 1995 -326,901. At the same period the average yearly shooting was 41,115 specimens, most shoots were made in 1994 -65,848 specimens, while the smallest shooting was recorded in 2002 -25,753 brown hare. In order to test the age of the rabbit on the basis of eye lenses weight and determining the % of the young processed a total of 133,545 eye lenses for 16 years, with yearly average of 8,346 eye lenses. The average percentage of the young brown hare in the observed period was 60%, which is very good. The average percentage of the young shows cycle depending on climatic factors. The highest % of young brown hare was established in 1994 and was 70%, while the lowest % of the young was in 2006 -50%. On the basis of regression analysis there has been found a small dependence on % of the young brown hare on the temperature and precipitation in the reproduction period from March to August for the last 16 years which is not statistically significant.
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