Diet of the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) and food availability in northern Patagonia (Mendoza, Argentina)

SILVIA PUIG; FERNANDO VIDELA; MONICA CONA; MONGE S

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR SAUGETIERKUNDE-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY

Elsevier Gmbh

Año: 2006

0044-3468

The brown hare, a Leporid widespread in the world, is now dispersed across Argentina after itsintroduction at the end of the 19th century. Studies on hare feeding ecology are important toevaluate a potential competition with domestic and native wild herbivores. This study analyses thebrown hare diet in relation to food availability, and dietary overlaps with several herbivores innorthern Patagonia. Food availability was estimated by point-quadrat transects, and hare diet bymicrohistological analysis of faeces, carried out in five habitats in five seasonal samplings.Significant differences were detected by Kruskall?Wallis ANOVA with multiple comparisons by Tukeytest. Feeding selection was detected by w 2 test, and dietary preferences by the confidence intervalof Bailey. Grasses and chamaephytes were the most available plant categories, with Stipa, Panicumand Acantholippia as main species. Grasses and phanerophytes were the main dietary categories,including Poa, Panicum, Bromus, Adesmia and Prosopidastrum. The phanerophytes Prosopidastrumand Ephedra were more eaten in winter, when the main food item (Poa) presented lower availability.A higher dietary proportion of the chamaephyte Acantholippia occurred in rocky habitats, where thecoarse dominant grasses were always avoided. Hares shared most food items with several wild anddomestic herbivores in northern Patagonia. The lack of preference for forbs differentiates brownhares from other herbivores. However, hares exhibited important dietary similarities with plainand mountain vizcachas, goats and horses, and an interspecific competition for food is highlyprobable.