Effect of supplemental cover on survival of snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits in patchy habitat

Abstract

We examined mortality patterns of sympatric snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) and cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) on sites with and without brush piles to evaluate the protective role of cover in the fragmented habitat typical at the range limits of both species. Treatment sites received ≥2 oak brush piles per hectare in August and September 1994. Leporids used a minimum of 56% of created brush piles, but we failed to detect a difference in survivorship between animals occupying treatment and control sites, suggesting that brush piles may not have served as effective refugia to leporids of either species. Coyotes (Canis latrans) killed leporids in understory cover similar in mean density to that of study sites, whereas raptor kills occurred in areas with sparser understory than the average for the study sites or at coyote kills. We concluded that other methods of habitat alteration may be more effective means of increasing numbers of snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits.