The secret of Pianosa island: an Italian native population of European brown hare (Lepus europaeus meridiei Hilzheimer, 1906)

Mengoni, Chiara; Trocchi, V.; Mucci, Nadia; Gotti, Camilla; Giannini, Francesca; Mallìa, Egidio; Geminiani, C.; Baccetti, Nicola

doi:10.1007/s10592-018-1077-4

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Two failures were recorded for Artiodactyla, one for each of Lagomorpha and Erinaceomorpha; the latter was the only concluded attempted eradication. As regards the Lagomorpha, eradication of the brown hare Lepus europaeus from Pianosa (Italy, Tuscan Archipelago) was stopped in the initial phase because genetic analysis showed that the hare population belonged to the autochthonous genotype of the Italian peninsula, now extinct due to the continuous input of specimens from other countries or continents (Mengoni et al ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of mammal eradications on Mediterranean islands

Capizzi¹

2020

Mammal Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Impacts of alien invasive species on island communities and ecosystems may be even more detrimental than on the mainland. Therefore, since the 1950s, hundreds of restoration projects have been implemented worldwide, with the aim of controlling or eradicating alien species from islands. To date, no review has been focused on eradication on Mediterranean islands. To fill the gap, I reviewed the available information concerning mammal eradications so far carried out on Mediterranean islands, examining the details of several aspects of project implementation and monitoring. I obtained data for 139 attempted eradications on 107 Mediterranean islands in eight countries, with Greece, Italy, and Spain accounting for the highest number. Eradication projects targeted 13 mammal species. The black rat Rattus rattus was the target of over 75% of the known attempted eradications in the Mediterranean Basin; other species targeted were feral goat Capra hircus, house mouse Mus musculus, European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, and domestic cat Felis catus. The most widely adopted technique was poisoning (77% of all eradications), followed by trapping (15%) and hunting (4%). However, techniques were largely target‐specific. The average failure rate was about 11%. However, this percentage varied according to the specific mammalian order, and eradications of Carnivora failed more often than those of other mammals. Among rodents, house mouse eradication attained a very high failure rate (75%). Reinvasion occurred after 15% of successful eradications. A better understanding of the motivations of animal rights activists may improve the chance of success when eradicating charismatic or domesticated species. Furthermore, it is crucial to collect data and case studies about reinvasions, in order to strengthen biosecurity programmes following eradication. As in other parts of the world, the next frontier in alien mammal management on Mediterranean islands concerns the eradication of invasive species from inhabited islands.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of mammal eradications on Mediterranean islands

Capizzi¹

2020

Mammal Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The hare is a species deserving particular interest, as it is 1) a mammal of conservation concern in some areas, imperilled especially by pollution and agricultural intensification (e.g. Smith et al 2004, Mengoni et al 2018, Mayer et al 2020a); and 2) an introduced mammal threatening native species in other areas (Thulin 2003, Reid 2011, Barbar & Lambertucci, 2018). In both native and introduced ranges, the hare is predicted to expand its geographic range in extent and elevation due to climatic and land‐use changes (Bedson et al 2021, Pasqualotto et al 2021, Schai‐Braun et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taxonomists have identified a total of 16 morphological subspecies (Fig. 1a), although some of them have not been confirmed by genetic analyses (Mamuris et al 2001, Stamatis et al 2009, Ashrafzadeh et al 2018, Mengoni et al 2018). The hare is a polygynic species (Cowan & Bell 1986, Hackländer & Schai‐Braun 2018), typical of hilly environments, yet recorded between 0 and 2800 m above sea level (Averianov et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors affecting spatiotemporal behaviour in the European brown hareLepus europaeus: a meta‐analysis

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. The European brown hare Lepus europaeus is the most widely distributed hare species of the world, being naturally present throughout Eurasia and introduced as a game species in most continents. Despite the importance of this lagomorph for both management and conservation, a quantitative summary of its spatiotemporal behaviour is still lacking. 2. Taking advantage of 51 selected studies conducted throughout the native range of the hare and spanning the last 40 years, we used meta-analytic approaches in order to: 1) investigate home range size in relation to ecological factors; 2) test preference across major habitat types; and 3) provide a quantitative synthesis of hare activity patterns. 3. Temporally adjusted home range size of hare populations decreased with increasing cropland cover (cereal and non-cereal crops), suggesting that home range size gets smaller with increasing food availability, and predicting that hare populations living in absence of crops would double their mean home range size compared to those inhabiting areas covered entirely by cropland.Hare populations where more males were sampled showed larger home ranges, in line with the polygynous mating system of this species. 4. Hares preferred cropland and grassland over other habitats for foraging, thus selecting the two habitats characterised by the majority of trophic resources for this species. Yet, habitat types were used proportionally to their availability overall, except for the general avoidance of human settlements. Hares were mainly nocturnal, with the lowest activity during daytime, when activity was about one third of that at night, and showed moonlight avoidance, probably to limit encounters with nocturnal predators. Our work emphasises the importance of open habitats and especially croplandfor this lagomorph, but also suggests some plasticity in the use of space and time by hares. Such plasticity may help this mammal to cope with future environmental changes, providing that landscape heterogeneity is maintained.

show abstract

“…In particular, HaCV was repeatedly found in a population of a very ancient subspecies of brown hares, L. europaeus var. meridiei that inhabits Pianosa, a small island in the Tuscany Archipelago (Mengoni et al., 2018). Because Pianosa is a protected area, this hare species and the related microbiome/virome evolved as an isolated and high‐density population that was unaffected by translocation/restocking events associated with other species of hares.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%