Plant cover influences on the use of microhabitats by the European hare (Lepus europaeus) in recently burned rangelands

The aim of this research was to investigate the influences of vegetation characteristics on the use of microhabitats by the European hare (Lepus europaeus). For this purpose, 10 rangelands, which have been burned in 2007 and inhabited by the hare, were selected in the western Peloponnese. In these areas, the use of microhabitats with different levels of plant cover (0-25%, 25.1-50%, 50.1-75%, 75.1- 100%) by the hare was evaluated using the pellet count method during the summer of 2009. The hare used more often the microhabitats with minimum plant cover (0-25%) whereas as the plant cover was increased the use of the microhabitats by the hare was reduced. These results along with those obtained in recent studies, i.e. the hare uses more often the sites with low vegetation height suggest that the vegetation characteristics constitute an important agent able to influence the behaviour and the movements of the hare. As a consequence, grazing, fire as well as any factor capable of reducing the density and the height of the vegetation could be used as a ‘tool’ for the management of habitats and populations of the hare in order to combine the grazing and the game in the same time-space.