REPRODUCTIVE PARAMETERS OF FARMED BROWN HARE (LEPUS EUROPAEUS) FOR RESTOCKING PURPOSES

Jaroslav Slamečka; Rastislav Jurčík; Dušan Mertin; Matúš Rajský

doi:10.15679/bjwr.v1i1.14

REPRODUCTIVE PARAMETERS OF FARMED BROWN HARE (LEPUS EUROPAEUS) FOR RESTOCKING PURPOSES

Jaroslav Slamečka, Rastislav Jurčík, Dušan Mertin, Matúš Rajský

Abstract

The population of European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) declined dramatically last decades in Slovakia. In many areas, originally with high density of hares, these are almost absent. Improving of the habitat is one of the main tasks for maintaining of hare populations. To increase the population density, we examined the hare farming for restocking purposes. Hares were kept in cages in couples all over the year. Leverets were weaned at the age of 28 days. During three consecutive years, 11.05 leverets were born and 7.06 leverets were weaned per 1 fertile female on average. The losses were 29.3 % (dead born and mortality up to weaning). We registered 21.5 % of couples having no offspring (due to various reasons). Average number of leverets in the litter was 2.57; average number of litters was 4.32 per fertile female. Hare does are able to have up to 8 litters in the year (due to superfoetation), the highest number of weaned leverets from one female in one year was 20. The adaptation of hares to the nature conditions is a very important role. Hares for releasing were gradually fed with green fodder and after 2 weeks were released as groups with sex ratio 1:1 into enclosures offering diverse composition of green food. The adaptation improves the musculature of hares (average weight gain after adaptation was 0.95 kg and prepares the animals to natural food. After 6 weeks the hares are prepared for restocking purposes. The precondition for releasing success is the improvement of habitat.

Keywords

brown hare, Lepus europaeus, farming, reproduction, adaptation for restocking

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15679/bjwr.v1i1.14