NDLI: Evidence of autumn reproduction in female European hares (Lepus europaeus) from southern Europe

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Antoniou, Aglaia Kotoulas, Georgios Magoulas, Antonios Alves, Paulo Célio
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	Information on reproductive biology of the European hare (Lepus europaeus) in different environmental and landscape conditions comprises part of fundamental knowledge regarding species’ adaptive responses as well as many aspects of its biology. Most of the studies conducted on European hare reproduction are confined to midlatitude and northern populations, whereas no data exist on the indigenous southern populations. Here, we present information on reproductive characteristics of European hares inhabiting Mediterranean ecosystems on the island of Crete, Greece for two successive hunting seasons. Although the annual reproductive cycle of the species is well known, with an autumn sexual inactivity, the duration of this period is subjected to fluctuations in different years and for different areas. According to our data, hare populations of Crete present an autumn–early winter reproductive activity with high proportions of pregnant females observed in all the months of the study. Furthermore, the estimated mean litter size (1.54 SE ± 0.07) while signed to the lowest values ever observed for European hares is similar to values obtained in continuous breeding species of the same genus, Lepus granatensis, Lepus corsicanus, Lepus (capensis) mediterraneus, and Lepus capensis also inhabiting warm climates. In conclusion, our results suggest that Cretan European hare populations exhibit a reproductively active period during autumn–early winter where proportions of pregnant females and litter size give a strong indication of a continuous reproduction throughout the year.
Starting Page	581
Ending Page	587
Page Count	7
File Format	PDF
ISSN	16124642
Journal	European Journal of Wildlife Research
Volume Number	54
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	14390574
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2008-03-12
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Continuous reproduction Adaptation Mediterranean Greece Crete Animal Ecology Zoology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Nature and Landscape Conservation

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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