The European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas) population in Lithuania: the status and causes of abundance change

Abstract

The Population of the European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas) was fluctuated in XX Century. After the peak of population in early sixties, depression in eighties and stabilization later, during last years was observed negative tendencies again. The mostly significant decrease of the European hare Population was documented In mostly Suitable South west Lithuanian region. The main tasks were to analyze the harvest dynamics in Lithuania and estimate the reasons of abundance change. The harvest of the European hare during the 1996/1997 - 1999/2000 yr. hunting seasons (4 yrs.) were 16.2% of all population. The average annual harvest in 1000 ha of landed properties was 1.5 individual. Three climatic factors had the highest Cumulative impact on the European hare abundance: average precipitation during June and July; average temperature during March and June; the number of cold days during December and March. The abundance of hares didn't dependent on the hunting method. The European hare abundance dynamics was dependent oil hunting intensity, if the hunts Were Organized two times and more in the same area the abundance significantly decreased. The game bag of the European hare was lower the Red fox: the ratio was: I fox to 0.78 hare. In the districts of high hare abundance the ratio was 1:8-10 (fox : hare) and the fox was not main limiting abundance factor. In the districts where the game bag of the Red fox was higher the European hare, i.e. the ratio was 1:0.5-2.0 (fox : hare), the red fox was important factor limiting the European hare abundance. The European hares was intensively inflected by Coccidian, Trichostrongylidae and less by Trichuris leporis. In 79 kill road section average 52 hares was killed by traffic annually. That constitutes 5% of the European hare game bag.