Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Prague, Czech Republic.
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
PeerJ. 2024 Apr 30;12:e17235. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17235. eCollection 2024.
The low survival rate of leverets may significantly contribute to steep population declines and slow recovery of European hares (). However, the leveret survival rate in farmlands with different landscape structures is poorly understood, and the existing evidence comes mainly from Western Europe. In this study, we explored the survival of leveret hare dummies along linear semi-natural habitats in homogeneous Central European arable farmland during the main part of the European hare reproduction period (March-April) in 2019 and 2020. The survival rate of hare leverets during the 14-day period was only 22.2%, and all predation events were recorded during the first six days of the experiment. Mammalian predators were responsible for 53.1% of predation events, avian predators for 40.8%, and agricultural operations for 6.1%. The red fox () was the dominant predator in our study area and was the primary cause of leveret dummy mortality (32.7%), but it also had the highest use-intensity and visit frequency of all of the study plots. Predation by avian predators was associated with patches of lower vegetation height and cover (such as plowed fields) and during daylight hours, whereas the opposite was true for mammalian predators. We propose that improving the habitat quality of arable landscapes by increasing the proportion and quality of extensively used non-farmed habitats (, set-asides, wildflower areas, extensive meadows, fallow land, and semi-natural habitats on arable land) providing cover and shelter for leverets could be an effective management measure for reducing predation risk on leverets.
兔幼崽的低存活率可能是欧洲野兔数量急剧下降和缓慢恢复的一个重要原因（）。然而，对于不同景观结构的农田中的兔幼崽存活率，我们知之甚少，现有的证据主要来自西欧。在这项研究中，我们在 2019 年和 2020 年欧洲野兔繁殖期的主要阶段（3 月至 4 月），沿着线性半自然栖息地探索了中欧均质农田中兔幼崽假模型的存活率。在 14 天的实验期间，野兔幼崽的存活率仅为 22.2%，并且所有的捕食事件都记录在实验的前六天。哺乳动物捕食者负责 53.1%的捕食事件，鸟类捕食者负责 40.8%，农业作业负责 6.1%。红狐（）是我们研究区域的主要捕食者，也是导致兔幼崽假模型死亡的主要原因（32.7%），但它也是所有研究地块中使用强度和访问频率最高的捕食者。鸟类捕食者的捕食与植被高度和覆盖度较低的斑块（如耕地）和白天有关，而哺乳动物捕食者的捕食则相反。我们提出，通过增加广泛使用的非农田栖息地（如休耕地、野花区、草原、休耕地和耕地中的半自然栖息地）的比例和质量，改善农田景观的栖息地质量，为兔幼崽提供遮蔽和庇护，可能是降低兔幼崽捕食风险的有效管理措施。
