Diet of the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) and food availability in northern Patagonia (Mendoza, Argentina)

Abstract

The brown hare, a Leporid widespread in the world, is now dispersed across Argentina after its introduction at the end of the 19th century. Studies on hare feeding ecology are important to evaluate a potential competition with domestic and native wild herbivores. This study analyses the brown hare diet in relation to food availability, and dietary overlaps with several herbivores in northern Patagonia. Food availability was estimated by point-quadrat transects, and hare diet by microhistological analysis of faeces, carried out in five habitats in five seasonal samplings. Significant differences were detected by Kruskall-Wallis ANOVA with multiple comparisons by Tukey test. Feeding selection was detected by w 2 test, and dietary preferences by the confidence interval of Bailey. Grasses and chamaephytes were the most available plant categories, with Stipa, Panicum and Acantholippia as main species. Grasses and phanerophytes were the main dietary categories, including Poa, Panicum, Bromus, Adesmia and Prosopidastrum. The phanerophytes Prosopidastrum and Ephedra were more eaten in winter, when the main food item (Poa) presented lower availability. A higher dietary proportion of the chamaephyte Acantholippia occurred in rocky habitats, where the coarse dominant grasses were always avoided. Hares shared most food items with several wild and domestic herbivores in northern Patagonia. The lack of preference for forbs differentiates brown hares from other herbivores. However, hares exhibited important dietary similarities with plain and mountain vizcachas, goats and horses, and an interspecific competition for food is highly probable.

Range expansion and comparative habitat use of insular, congeneric lagomorphs: invasive European hares Lepus europaeus and endemic Irish hares Lepus timidus hibernicus

“…The ability of the European hare to become a highly effective alien invasive species has been demonstrated both in Sweden, where it has displaced the native mountain hare (Thulin 2003;, and in northern Patagonia where mara (Dolichotis patagonum) populations have been depressed or displaced since its introduction in the late 1800 s (Puig et al 2006). The present study indicates that the European hare poses a significant threat to the ecological security of the Irish hare.…”

Diet of the Iberian hare (Lepus granatensis) in a mountain ecosystem

“…Studies on the brown hare, L. europaeus (e.g., Frylestam 1986;Chapuis 1990;Homolka and Heroldova 2003;Reichlin et al 2006;Puig et al 2007), on the mountain hare, L. timidus (e.g., Johannessen and Samset 1994; Wolfe et al 1996;Dingerkus and Montgomery 2001), and on the black-tailed 1982; Johnson and Anderson 1984) showed that grasses are generally the main component of their diet. However, available data also suggests the occurrence of temporal and spatial variation in the diets depending on food availability.…”

Bioenergy crops and farmland biodiversity: benefits and limitations are scale-dependant for a declining mammal, the brown hare

“…Hare droppings were located by searching a predetermined transect inside the Miscanthus crops and were easily distinguishable from other sympatric species such as rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), based on their size, shape and appearance, with large observable plant fragments on the surface. At least 10 droppings from separate clumps located several meters away from each other were collected from each Miscanthus field to ensure a representative assessment of diet (Puig et al 2007). Six combined samples obtained from hare droppings were analysed from each Miscanthus block in each of three seasons (winter, spring, summer), totalling 36 samples.…”