Urban hare data

This data is the basis for the publication 'New to town: home range size, habitat selection and behavioral adaptations by urban hares' by Martin Mayer, Rasmus Mohr Mortensen, and Peter Sunde, published in Wildlife Ecology.We captured three hares using a ca. 30 m long net, by using 2 to 3 people to drive hares into the net (Fig. 1). Once captured, hares were fitted with a GPS collar (LiteTrack 40 RF GPS PINPOINT, Lotek) that recorded one GPS position per hour from 18:00 to 8:00 and two-hourly GPS positions from 8:00 to 18:00 when hares are generally active and inactive, respectively.In addition, we conducted approaches of hares (not GPS-collared) in urban versus rural areas, measuring their FID to quantify if they show behavioral adaptations towards living in urban areas. Data were collected in Aarhus and surrounding farmland areas during April and May 2018 and 2020. Hares were approached by a single person in a straight line and at a constant walking pace. We estimated the alert distance, defined as the distance from the approaching person to when the hare became alert, and the FID, defined as distance of the approaching person to the hare when it started to escape.