Home range landscape structure of European hares (Lepus europaeus Pallas) in a hilly area of Tuscany

The aim of the study was to analyze the differences between the home range landscape structure of resident and translocated brown hares during the non- hunting period (January-June). The trial was carried out in the typical hilly landscape of central Italy (Florence province, X = 1667003 Y = 4844543, ref. Rome, 1940). During the capture operations for the translocation, 20 hares were captured and equipped with a necklace radio tag (Biotrak, TW3): 6 hares (4 males and 2 females) were immediately released in the same non-hunting area where they had been captured and 14 hares (7 males and 7 females) were translocated in a neighbouring Hunting Territory. The tagged hares were localized, and/or sighted individually, 2-3 times a week, from mid January to mid June, 2007. UTM coordinates were determinated for each localization using a portable GPS than transferred on Arc View software. Animal movement extension was used to calculate Max, min and average daily movements. Kernel method was used to calculate each home range. Home range sizes also were calculated using the MCP method. Maximum distance from the releasing sites and maximum distance from centroid were also calculated for translocated hares and resident hares, respectively. Aerial photographs (scale 1:10000) geo-referenced and digitalized were used. 14 different land use categories were selected and digitalized in a vector format. These land use were composed by natural uses (woods, shrubs-area, river and ponds), agricultural uses (crops for game, orchards and gardens, grasses and pastures, uncultivated fields, winter and spring cereals, vineyards, tree orchards and poplars, olive orchards) and anthropomorphized uses (extractive and construction sites, road and urban areas). Landscape metrics for home range (patch density, edge density, fractal dimension, contagion) were calculated using FRAGSTATS software after rasterization process. Results showed that the Max distance from the releasing sites in the translocated hares was significantly greater than the maximum distance from centroid in the resident hares (simple = radius, or doubled = diameter), (1.281 vs. 368 or 736 m, p < 0.05). Home range sizes also differed in relationship to translocated and resident’s (Kernel 173 vs. 23 ha and MCP 63 vs. 9 ha p < 0.05). Considering landscape structure indices, the translocated hares preferred landscape characterized by a lower density of patches and edges than the resident’s (70 vs. 152 n/100 ha and 258 vs. 448 m/ha, p<0.01). Moreover translocated hares preferred areas characterized by greater aggregation and a lower path shape complexity than resident’s (contagion index: 61 vs. 54%; fractal dimension index: 1.11 vs 1.12, p<0.01). Either the home range sizes or the maximum distance from the releasing sites suggest that the translocated hares must be however released in suited habitats or the animal will move from their releasing point searching better habitats. The increased travels, increase the risk to be killed by the predators or by the vehicles in the crossing roads.