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Colonization and habitat selection of a declining farmland species in urban areas

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A Correction to this article was published on 23 May 2020

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Abstract

Despite the accelerating global urbanization and its associated implications for wildlife and humans, we know little about the biology of urban ecosystems. Here, we investigated colonization and habitat selection of the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a declining farmland species, in urban areas in Denmark, using a combination of citizen science data and transect counts. Further, we estimated the population density of urban hares in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city. Our results provide the first evidence that hares have established populations in urban areas, potentially in response to decreasing habitat quality in rural areas due to agricultural intensification. The hare density in Aarhus was ca. 8 hares per km2, which is comparable to or slightly higher than hare abundance estimates from various pastural areas in Europe, suggesting that urban areas provide suitable habitat for hares. Hare habitat selection was generally associated with areas consisting of large lawns, such as high buildings and parks, which potentially provide high-quality forage throughout the year. Considering the increasing expansion of urban areas and deteriorating habitat quality of agricultural areas, urban planning that incorporates habitat requirements for wildlife could help to support urban animal populations, especially for species of conservation concern.

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Change history

  • 23 May 2020

    In our paper, using distance sampling, we estimated the population density of hares in Aarhus city to 6.8 hares/km2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anders Fedder Kristensen, Carsten Swayne Storgaard, David Bækby Houborg, Emma Kaczmar, Hanne Juel Christiansen, Jonas Robert Andersen, and Mathias Damholt for assistance with fieldwork. Further, we thank the Danish Hunters Association for support and an anonymous reviewer for constructive feedback. We are grateful for economical funding form the Danish Environmental Agency.

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  1. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Grenåvej 14, 8410, Rønde, Denmark

    Martin Mayer & Peter Sunde

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  1. Martin Mayer
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  2. Peter Sunde
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Martin Mayer: Conceptualization; Data collection; Formal analysis; Methodology; Visualization; Writing - original draft. Peter Sunde: Funding acquisition; Methodology; Project administration; Writing - review & editing.

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Correspondence to Martin Mayer.

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Mayer, M., Sunde, P. Colonization and habitat selection of a declining farmland species in urban areas. Urban Ecosyst 23, 543–554 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00943-1

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