Characteristics of the European hare Lepus europaeus use of space in a French agricultural region of intensive farming

Fifty-one European hares Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778 were monitored during at least one month by radiotracking in an intensively farmed landscape. The mean home range size of 21 hares monitored during at least six months was about 100 ha. During summer and autumn, seasonal home range size and the mean distance between fixes did not reveal any difference in the use of space between sexes or between age classes. However, according to the shifts of monthly resting range centres, females seemed to be more sedentary than males. The night-time activity range was often larger than the daytime resting range and partly or totally overlapped it although resting and activity locations were rarely the same. Hare movements did not show any important changes in response to crop harvesting or shooting.