Studies of ecomorphological variations of the European hare (Lepus europaeus) in Turkey

Abstract

Hares (Lepus spp.) are widely distributed across the globe and are adapted to diverse climatic conditions. In order to study the ecomorphological variations of hares from Turkey, the body and cranial measurements and body weight, as well as coat color types, of 138 hares collected from all over Turkey between 2006 and 2012, were examined. Statistically significant differences between regional samples (p <0.05, ANOVA) only in terms of body weight and hindfoot length were found; however, there were a good number of external phenotypes, particularly in terms of coat color variants of the hare specimens. Furthermore, populations had similar variations in terms of morphometric measurement, body weight and coat coloration between different geographical regions. Turkish hares did not exhibit clinal variations from south to north in body and cranial measurements depending on the mean annual temperatures and precipitation. Therefore, it was assumed that all of these variations might be a polymorphism related to the local adaptations and high level of admixture of gene pools in Anatolia

Foraging ecology of Eurasian lynx populations in southwest Asia: Conservation implications for a diet specialist

“…On the basis of the estimated densities, available mean prey biomass was calculated by using an average adult live body weight of 3.17 kg for brown hare (Demirbaş, Albayrak, & Yilmaz, ) and three‐fourth of female adult live body weights of 75 kg for red deer, 30 kg for wild goat, and 60 kg for wild boar to account for juveniles (Turan, ).…”

“…On the basis of the estimated densities, available mean prey biomass was calculated by using an average adult live body weight of 3.17 kg for brown hare (Demirbaş, Albayrak, & Yilmaz, 2013) and three-fourth of female adult live body weights of 75 kg for red deer, 30 kg for wild goat, and 60 kg for wild boar to account for juveniles (Turan, 1984 Chesson's selectivity index α (Chesson, 1978) was then used to assess lynx prey preferences. Chesson's α is defined as the proportion of prey species in the scat divided by the proportion of prey species i in the environment, p i , normalized in such a way that the sum of the alpha values over all k prey species equals one (Chesson, 1978).…”

A comparative study of the reproductive activities of European hare(Lepus europaeus) populations in Turkey

“…Demirbaş et al (2012) noted that despite the presence of different phenotypes in Anatolia, genetic exchange is rather low among these hares. Additionally, Demirbaş et al (2013) found significant differences in some morphometric characters among regional hare samples in Turkey. It was concluded that climatic characteristics, particularly with ambient temperature, cause plasticity in the reproductive cycle of European hare populations distributed in Turkey.…”