Comparison of European hare (Lepus europaeus) population densities between an eco-farm and a conventional farm

Summary

European hare populations have not recovered from their shrinking over the past fifty years in Germany. Most hare habitas are agricultural regions which are farmed according to conventional farming standard. Organic farming is characterized by waiving of pesticides, growth regulators and arificial manure, by longer crop rotations and by wider seed seed-row spacings in some cereal crops. Thus, positive effects of eco-farming on hare populations in agricultural landscape may be assumed. However, eco-farming has not been studied in this regard up to now.