Dietary habits of the European brown hare: summary of knowledge and management relapses

Abstract

Assessing the nutritional needs and food preferences of animal species is important to design appropriate habitat improvement actions, in particular in agricultural environments. The European brown hare Lepus europaeus is a game species of European conservation interest, typical of open areas, and with declining populations in Eurasia. In this work, the authors summarised the current knowledge on European brown hare feeding habits and also discussed potential management relapses of this species. The European brown hare has developed a particular digestive process called caecotrophy, which consists of a double passage of food through the alimentary canal. Hares compensate for this disadvantage by selecting foods with a high nutritional value, poor in fibre and rich in fats and proteins. The European brown hare thrives in farmland habitat as crops have a high nutritional value, even if monoculture and reduction of crop variety are considered the main causes of the decline of this species. Even in the agricultural environment, spontaneous weeds are an important part of the European brown hare diet, covering the nutritional needs when cultivated plants have a low nutritional value or have been harvested. The restoration of crop rotation and polycultures (cereals and cover crops), and the establishment of agri-environmental measures such as wildflower strips and patches, represent effective strategies to favour the European brown hare and the biodiversity of farmland habitats.

KEY WORDS:

• diet analysis
• game management
• Lagomorpha
• Lepus europaeus
• trophic ecology.

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Niccolò Fattorini and Roberto Carbone, who helped in literature search. E. Basset (University of Birmingham) conducted language polishing of our MS. Two anonymous reviewers kindly took the time to provide us with useful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

E. Mori was funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4 – Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree no. 3175 of 18 December 2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU; Project code [CN_00000033], Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, [CUP B83C22002930006], Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center – NBFC”.