We provide an updated distribution and dispersal rate of the European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778) introduced in South America, with georeferenced record localities. According to our results the current geographic distribution of the European hare, would cover practically all of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, southeastern Peru, southwestern Bolivia, southeastern Paraguay, and central part of southern Brazil. During the process of invading new areas, the hare has occupied very dissimilar environments, from the bushy steppes and Andean deserts of Bolivia and Peru to the dry and humid forests and wooded savannahs of Paraguay and Brazil. This would explain the variation observed in the dispersal rates that varied between 10 and 37 km/year.
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1 March 2010
Dispersal of the European hare, Lepus europaeus in South America
Never Bonino,
Daniel Cossíos,
Joao Menegheti
Folia Zoologica
Vol. 59 • No. 1
March 2010
Vol. 59 • No. 1
March 2010
dispersal rate
exotic species
geographic distribution
range expansion