Abstract

Habitat use, abundance and population dynamics of the woolly hare (Lepus oiostolus) were investigated in an alpine shrub-covering valley near Lhasa, Tibet. Counts of fecal pellets indicated that habitats outside the valley with heavily degraded shrub vegetation supported a small hare population, compared with habitats inside the valleys where vegetation was undisturbed, agricultural and hunting were lacking, and predators and herbivore competitors rare. Three types of shrub habitats with intermediate cover levels along with alpine meadow inside the valley were equally preferred by the hares, whereas willow-rhododendron, with the densest cover, was avoided. Transect surveys showed that the hare population density in the preferred habitats was 13 ind./km² in spring and 27 ind./km² in autumn. Out of seven years observations from 1995 to 2004, massive spring mortality of hares occurred only in 2000, leading to a marked population decline that year.