DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF SNOWSHOE HARES IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Hodges, Karen; Mills, Scott; Murphy, Kerry

Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) are widespread in boreal and montane forests of North America, vary intheir temporal dynamics, and are major drivers in their food webs. In Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming,hare abundance, distribution, and temporal dynamics are unknown, yet Yellowstone contains a large area withintheir southern range that is relatively unfragmented by human activities. The 1988 Yellowstone fires have led toextensive regenerating stands, a seral condition that elsewhere supports relatively high numbers of hares. Toexamine snowshoe hare dynamics in the park from 2002 to 2007, we surveyed stands within 7 cover types andestimated abundance for a subset of sites. Both livetrapping data and fecal pellet count surveys showed thatsnowshoe hares are rare in Yellowstone. More than 36% of surveyed stands did not support any hares. Matureforest cover types were more likely to have hares than were stands regenerating after the 1988 fires, but veryfew stands supported high numbers; 96% of stands had ,0.5 hares/ha. Three stands that burned in 2003 hadhares before the fire, but none afterward. Hare numbers fluctuated modestly over time, but patterns were notindicative of a cycle. Taken altogether, our results indicate that snowshoe hares in Yellowstone are rare,patchily distributed, and apparently acyclic, important findings both for understanding hare dynamics and forimplications for the Yellowstone food web that includes the federally Threatened Canada lynx (Lynxcanadensis).

DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF SNOWSHOE HARES IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

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