We evaluated the fine-scale spatiotemporal habitat use by the Japanese hare (Lepus brachyurus) in daily active (nighttime) and inactive (daytime) periods during heavy snowfall seasons in northeastern Japan. To reveal the habitat use by hares considering the relationship with predators, we conducted camera trap surveys between January and March in 2021 and 2022 in 150 ha and footprint tracking surveys between January and March in 2022 and 2023 in 400 ha. Consequently, the shooting events of hare camera traps were significantly positively related to canopy openness, slope, and those of martens, but not related to those of foxes. The diel activity of hares overlapped with those of martens and foxes, but did not overlap with that of foxes in daytime. There were no significant differences in time lags between appearance times of hares and martens, or hares and foxes. In contrast, the forms (i.e., resting sites) of hares during the inactive period (daytime) were located in areas with closed canopies and low horizontal openness. These findings suggest that habitat selection by hares may be based on foraging rather than terrestrial predator avoidance during the active period (nighttime), and on both aerial and terrestrial predator avoidance during the inactive period (daytime).

Published online 10 September, 2024; Print publication 31 October, 2024