The influence of cereal harvest on the home-range use of the European hare (Lepus europaeus)

Abstract

In farming areas predominated by one field crop, harvest changes food and cover availability for Euro- pean hares ( Lepus europaeus ) within a short time frame. In this study, we tracked European hares by GPS (n = 9) and VHF (n = 19) in an agricultural area with 54% of cereal cropping before, during, and after harvest. In particular, we focused on the question whether and how harvest affects European hares ' space use. We found that, during activity, hares ' 24-h home-ranges were significantly larger after harvest than before, whereas on weekly home-range size, harvest had only a significant effect when calculated by the Minimum Convex Polygon method. We suggest that the effect of harvest on the species ' home-range size is time scale dependent. Changes in home-range use were mainly due to hares using less cereal fields after harvest. Further- more, after harvest, active hares stayed further away from field edges, whereas resting animals were closer to field edges. In conclusion, our results show that cereal harvest influenced European hares ' space use, but this influence might only be discernible on the small time scale.