Fig 1.
A tagged hare with an example of movements and home range.
(A) An Irish hare (Lepus timidus hibernicus) wearing a LOTEK Ltd. Litetrack RF60 collar after release back into the wild. Photograph © Neil Reid. (B) An example of a hare’s GPS locations for one week (red dots), 95% kernel home range (outer polygon), 50% kernel core range (inner polygon), and interfix step length movements (dashed lines). In this example, the average step length was 68m/hr, the furthest single movement was 530m with the animal travelling on average 1.7km/24hrs and 11.6km/week.
Fig 2.
Hare relocation rates over six months after release.
Kaplan-Meier plots showing declining probability of relocating a hare (solid lines) ± 95% Confidence Intervals (shading) comparing (A) coursed and uncoursed and (B) translocated and untranslocated hares. These two cohorts (n = 20 hares in each) were further broken down into (C) four cohorts (n = 10 in each): untranslocated uncoursed, translocated uncoursed, untranslocated coursed and translocated coursed. For simplicity, 95% Confidence Intervals have not been shown in (C) but are reported as text next to each line.
Table 1.
Outcomes for 40 collared hares after six months.
Values are individual counts of hares. Statistical differences between cohorts were tested using a 2x2 or 2x4 χ2 Contingency tests as appropriate for two or four cohorts respectively. Asterisks highlight outcomes that differed significantly (p<0.05) between cohorts. ∞ indicates a complete difference in outcome i.e. that outcome occurred in one cohort only.
Fig 3.
Hare activity throughout 24 hours.
Boxplot (median, interquartile range and 95% Confidence Intervals) of hare movements in metres per hour i.e. step lengths between successive GPS fixes throughout (A) the 24-hour period showing nocturnal (dark grey), crepuscular (light grey) and diurnal activity (no shading). The earliest and latest sunrise and sunset times varied from 4-8am and 5-9pm between mid-winter (initial release in February) and mid-summer (four months after release during June) respectively. (B) shows the same but with daily activity folded over date-specific local sunrise and sunset (both represented by 0) with hourly offsets during night shown as negative integers and day as positive integers adjusted for daylight savings (BST to GMT). This removes the drifting of sunrise and sunset times and standardised activity relative to the date-specific light-dark cycle.
Fig 4.
Average daily hare movements throughout the first week after release.
Kilometres per 24 hours ± 1 standard error comparing (A) coursed and uncoursed, (B) translocated and untranslocated and (C) all four cohorts of hares. Samples sizes in individual hares for (D) coursed and uncoursed and (E) translocated and untranslocated hares. Home range size (the extent of 95% kernel polygon) in hectares comparing (F) coursed and uncoursed, (G) translocated and untranslocated and (H) all four cohorts of hares.
Fig 5.
Average daily hare movements per week over six months after release.
Kilometres per 24 hours per week ± 1 standard error comparing (A) coursed and uncoursed, (B) translocated and untranslocated and (C) all four cohorts of hares. Sample sizes for (D) coursed and uncoursed and (E) translocated and untranslocated hares. Home range size (the extent of 95% kernel polygon in hectares) comparing (F) coursed and uncoursed, (G) translocated and untranslocated and (H) all four cohorts of hares. The shaded area from Weeks 16–27 indicates that caution should be taken in interpreting results due to a small sample size of coursed hares contributing spatial data.
Fig 6.
Hare dispersal distances over six months after release.
Measured by the average distance from the release site each week in kilometres ± 1 standard error comparing all four cohorts of hares. The shaded area from Weeks 16–27 indicates caution should be used in interpreting results due to the small sample size of individual hares contributing spatial data.