The role of maize cultivation on European hare abundance

Abstract

Agricultural areas make up over one third of the worlds’ terrestrial area, with past and ongoing agricultural land use change and intensification being a major threat to many animal populations. In Europe, maize grown for biofuel and fodder is increasingly replacing traditional crop types, which might affect wildlife populations. Here, we used spotlight counts to estimate densities of the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a declining farmland species, on a landscape scale in Denmark. Our main objective was to investigate if hare density was affected by the proportion of maize and other vegetation types, while controlling for other factors including habitat heterogeneity and predator abundance. We found that hare density decreased with increasing maize cover, whereas no other vegetation type affected hare density. This suggests that continued expansion in maize cultivation will likely lead to further population declines of hares, potentially because greater maize cover replaces crops and areas that are more valuable for wildlife. Thus, incentivizing maize as energy source for biogas production will likely have adverse effects on animal populations such as hares and other farmland species, ultimately leading to decreased biodiversity.