Contribution to the ecology of the Italian hare (Lepus corsicanus)

Abstract

The Italian hare (Lepus corsicanus) is endemic to Central-Southern Italy and Sicily, classified as vulnerable due to habitat alterations, low density and fragmented populations and ecological competition with the sympatric European hare (Lepus europaeus). Despite this status, only few and local studies have explored its ecological features. We provided some key traits of the ecological niche of the Italian hare as well as its potential distribution in the Italian peninsula. All data derived from genetically validated presences. We generated a habitat suitability model using maximum entropy distribution model for the Italian hare and its main competitor, the European hare. The dietary habits were obtained for the Italian hare with DNA metabarcoding and High-Throughput Sequencing on faecal pellets. The most relevant environmental variables affecting the potential distribution of the Italian hare are shared with the European hare, suggesting a potential competition. The variation in the observed altitudinal distribution is statistically significant between the two species.The diet of the Italian hare all year around includes 344 plant taxa accounted by 62 families. The Fagaceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae and Solanaceae (counts > 20,000) represented the 90.22% of the total diet. Fabaceae (60.70%) and Fagaceae (67.47%) were the most abundant plant items occurring in the Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter diets, respectively. The Spring/Summer diet showed richness (N = 266) and diversity index values (Shannon: 2.329, Evenness: 0.03858, Equitability: 0.4169) higher than the Autumn/Winter diet (N = 199, Shannon: 1.818, Evenness: 0.03096, Equitability: 0.3435). Our contribution adds important information to broaden the knowledge on the environmental (spatial and trophic) requirements of the Italian hare, representing effective support for fitting management actions in conservation planning.

Figure 1

Study area. In yellow, range distribution of the Italian hare in Italy^,, modified). The inset shows the study area with sample locations (red spots, N = 759). PNCVDA Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni National Park (in pink), PNM Majella National Park (in green), PNALM Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise National Park (in azure), PNC Circeo National Park (in violet), AFV game reserve in Tuscany region (in orange), GR Gallo game reserve in Calabria region (in dark purple), RFL (ISPRA) records on the distribution of the fauna of Latium. Figure was modified from the maps created with software QGIS v.3.4.2, available at https://www.qgis.org.

Figure 2

Species-specific distribution map. Distribution map of the samples of the Italian hare (Lepus corsicanus, orange spots) and the European hare (Lepus europaeus, azure spots). Figure was modified from the map created with software QGIS v.3.4.2, available at https://www.qgis.org.

Figure 3

Habitat suitability analysis for the Italian hare and the European hare. (a) Multivariate environmental similarity surface (MESS) showing areas where model predictions are extrapolations in comparison to the training data set. The red areas show one or more environmental variables outside the range. (b) Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the Italian hare (LC) and the European hare (LE) of the models, AUC area under the curve. Habitat suitability maps of (c) the Italian hare (LC) and (d) the European hare (LE) based on MaxEnt models using 13 environmental variables and 234 and 261 presence points, respectively. 10 percentile training presence (0.321 for LC and 0.116 for LE) and Maximum training sensitivity plus specificity (0.229 for LC and 0.250 for LE) were used as thresholds for probability of presence (HS). Figures were modified from the maps created with software QGIS v.3.4.2, available at https://www.qgis.org.

Figure 4

The distribution of hares related to elevation. Altitudinal distribution of the suitable habitat for (a) the Italian hare and (b) the European hare; (c) observed distribution of the Italian hare (LC) and the European hare (LE); m s.a.l. meters above sea level.

Figure 5

Diet of the Italian hare all year-round. Number of read count (log₁₀) of each plant family included in diet of the Italian hare all year round.

Figure 6

Symmetric Venn diagram of shared and unique plant families in diet of samples collected in different environmental typologies. Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni National Park (PNCVDA), Majella National Park (PNM), Circeo National Park (PNC) and Game reserve (AFV), produced by Venn Diagram Tool freely available on the web (https://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/Venn/). See Supplementary Table S2 for details.