INDIVIDUAL VARIATIONS OF DAILY ACTIVITY PATTERNS IN RADIOTRACKED EUROPEAN HARES DURING WINTER

Daily movements during winter of 2 adult male (Nos 1 and 3) and 2 adul t female (Nos 2 and 4) radiotracking hares Lepus europaeus Pallas, 177 8 were estimated from simultaneous bearings using a 50 x 50 m grid. As deduced every 4 h both from the average rate of recorded changes of s quares on the grid, and from the average distance travelled, we found that the hares had a typically nocturnal locomotor activity pattern. H owever, when comparing individual data, we found that significant vari ations occurred from 12.00 to 15.59, and between 00.00 and 07.59. We a lso estimated that the average daily activity of the hares started nea r sunset (mean = 23 min after sunset, range +/- 110 min), and ended ne ar sunrise (mean = 14 min before sunrise, range +/- 60 min), male No 1 usually spending more time in activity than the 3 other specimens. Fi nally, we assessed the differences in nocturnal distance travelled bet ween individuals (Nos 2, 3, and 4) for a given period (during week 6, mean = 3.91 km, range 6.02-2.62), and also during several nights (duri ng weeks 6, 8, 10 and 12) for male No 3. We concluded that some inter- and intra-individual variations of activity patterns occurred on vari ous time scales (day-to-day or during a given night), such differences probably contributing to confuse predators.