Dataset Information

Exploration forays in juvenile European hares (Lepus europaeus): dispersal preludes or hunting-induced troubles?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Movements of animals have important consequences, at both the individual and population levels. Due to its important implications in the evolutionary dynamics of populations, dispersal is one of the most studied types of movement. In contrast, non-permanent extra home-range movements are often paid less attention. However, these movements may occur in response to important biological processes such as mating or predation avoidance. In addition, these forays are often preludes to permanent dispersal, because they may help individuals gain cues about their surroundings prior to settlement in a new place.In the European hare, exploration forays occur predominantly in juveniles, the time at which most hares disperse. In France, the timing of dispersal also overlaps with the hare hunting period. However, the determinants of such behaviour have not yet been studied. Herein, we investigate whether these non-permanent explorations are dispersal attempts/preludes or, in contrast, whether they are triggered by other factors such as disturbances related to hunting.

Results

Contrary to natal dispersal, we did not find strong male-bias in the propensity to engage in explorations. Exploration forays occurred less in juveniles than in adults and later in the season than natal dispersal. This was the case both for philopatric movements and for movements occurring after dispersal and settlement. These movements were also more likely to occur during the hare hunting period and the mating season.

Conclusions

We suggest that explorations in hares are triggered by factors other than dispersal and that hares may respond to hunting disturbances. Overall, we emphasize the need to account for human-related predation risk as a factor driving space-use in harvested species.

SUBMITTER: Avril A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3943402 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Exploration forays in juvenile European hares (Lepus europaeus): dispersal preludes or hunting-induced troubles?

Avril Alexis A Letty Jérôme J Léonard Yves Y Pontier Dominique D

BMC ecology 20140226

<h4>Background</h4>Movements of animals have important consequences, at both the individual and population levels. Due to its important implications in the evolutionary dynamics of populations, dispersal is one of the most studied types of movement. In contrast, non-permanent extra home-range movements are often paid less attention. However, these movements may occur in response to important biological processes such as mating or predation avoidance. In addition, these forays are often preludes ...[more]

PMID: 24568541

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Project description:BackgroundTularemia is a zoonotic disease caused by Francisella tularensis that has been found in many different vertebrates. In Germany most human infections are caused by contact with infected European brown hares (Lepus europaeus). The aim of this study was to elucidate the epidemiology of tularemia in hares using phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of F. tularensis.ResultsCultivation of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica bacteria from organ material was successful in 31 of 52 hares that had a positive PCR result targeting the Ft-M19 locus. 17 isolates were sensitive to erythromycin and 14 were resistant. Analysis of VNTR loci (Ft-M3, Ft-M6 and Ft-M24), INDELs (Ftind33, Ftind38, Ftind49, RD23) and SNPs (B.17, B.18, B.19, and B.20) was shown to be useful to investigate the genetic relatedness of Francisella strains in this set of strains. The 14 erythromycin resistant isolates were assigned to clade B.I, and 16 erythromycin sensitive isolates to clade B.IV and one isolate was found to belong to clade B.II. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) was useful to discriminate strains to the subspecies level.ConclusionsF. tularensis seems to be a re-emerging pathogen in Germany. The pathogen can easily be identified using PCR assays. Isolates can also be identified within one hour using MALDI-TOF MS in laboratories where specific PCR assays are not established. Further analysis of strains requires genotyping tools. The results from this study indicate a geographical segregation of the phylogenetic clade B.I and B.IV, where B.I strains localize primarily within eastern Germany and B.IV strains within western Germany. This phylogeographical pattern coincides with the distribution of biovar I (erythromycin sensitive) and biovar II (erythromycin resistance) strains. When time and costs are limiting parameters small numbers of isolates can be analysed using PCR assays combined with DNA sequencing with a focus on genetic loci that are most likely discriminatory among strains found in a specific area. In perspective, whole genome data will have to be investigated especially when terrorist attack strains need to be tracked to their genetic and geographical sources.

Project description:Over the last decades, the European hare (Lepus europaeus) has become the subject of many interdisciplinary studies due to the sharp Europe-wide population decline. In European hares, the first stage of life until weaning and the subsequent dispersal have been sparsely studied, in particular, habitat selection, movements and survival rate, as juveniles´ precocial lifestyle is dominated by concealment, motionlessness and inconspicuousness. In this study, free-living juvenile European hares (leverets) were detected systematically by thermography (n = 394), radio-tagged or marked (n = 122) from birth until the fifth week of life to research their habitat usage and pre-dispersal movements. The day-resting places and night locations, as well as the distance moved by leverets with aging, were evaluated by generalized linear mixed effect models. In addition, the habitat preference was assessed by a conservative use-availability analysis. Up to the fifth week of life, 30.5% of all leverets used cultivated areas in the daytime. In contrast, the remaining 69.4% animals inhabitated linear or small planar structures in the daytime, with the edges of field tracks, hedges and some ruderal structures clearly being preferred. At nighttime, 93% of all juveniles, which occupied linear structures in the daytime, used the adjoining fields up to 20 m away from the next linear structure. Nocturnal distances of more than 60 m to the next edge rarely occurred before the end of the pre-weaning phase. The time of day and age have a significant influence on the distance moved by juvenile hares. With increasing age, leverets moved less during the day and roamed further at night. The results are largely consistent with the behavioral patterns found in the few previous studies on pre-weaning European hares and show the importance of hiding places for leverets in early life stages. This study should contribute to a better understanding of behavior in juvenile life-history stages of European hares that may help to identify vulnerable phases in their lifecycle. In addition, the findings can refine existing population models and improve conservation efforts.

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Project description:In female mammals, reproduction, and in particular lactation, is the energetically most exigent life-history phase. Reproduction is strongly controlled by body reserves and food availability, so females with better body condition or food supply are believed to have higher reproductive output. Additionally, the growth and mortality of young mammals depends on their postnatal development. Therefore, the degree of precociality affects energetic demands for both mothers and young. To study the reproductive performance of the precocial European hare (Lepus europaeus), we analysed relationships between six predictor variables describing maternal and environmental effects and nine response variables relating to reproduction from 217 captive females. We compared the data with those of precocial and altricial mammal species from an extensive literature search. For hares, we found: (1) Heavier females had heavier litters at birth. (2) In summer and spring, total litter mass was larger than in winter. (3) At the end of lactation, the litters of multiparous females were heavier than those of primiparous females. (4) Both older females and females giving birth for the first time had relatively high leveret mortality during lactation. Comparing our results with the literature for other mammals revealed that the body condition (i.e., body mass) of females before birth is predictive of reproductive parameters in both precocial and altricial species. In the precocial hare, female body condition is no longer predictive of reproductive parameters at the end of lactation, whereas in altricial species, female body condition remains predictive of reproduction (litter mass at the end of lactation, offspring mortality) until the end of lactation. We conclude that these effects are caused by precocial offspring feeding on solid food soon after birth and, thus, being less dependent on the mother's body condition during lactation than altricial offspring. In line with this, precociality might have evolved as a way of buffering offspring against maternal effects.

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Dataset Information

Exploration forays in juvenile European hares (Lepus europaeus): dispersal preludes or hunting-induced troubles?

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Exploration forays in juvenile European hares (Lepus europaeus): dispersal preludes or hunting-induced troubles?

Similar Datasets

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