bcd
02-18-2014, 11:20 PM
I found this interesting article on hare predation risk and moon phase, and its effect on their movement and habitat choice: http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/5/938.full.pdf+html
Basically, in the winter 80% of predation occurs around the full moon, even though they reduce the distance they move each day by almost half compared to around the new moon. The moon phase didn't affect habitat choice (ie tree age and density). As far as their movement, that corresponds with what I've observed this year. Although it's my first season after them, so take that for what it's worth :)
This could help target when you hunt them, scout for tracks in new areas, and look for trails to set snares on. For example I returned to a road that had many tracks earlier in the season close to a new moon, and today there were no recent tracks, and I would have missed many of the old ones if I hadn't known to look closely there. It'll be interesting to see if they reappear in the next week or two.
That being said, I managed to jump these two in relatively open trees around 4pm within a few days of the full moon last week, so perhaps it's not as relevant for the hunting part, depending on how you go about it.
http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh514/bc_d/IMG_20140214_172311_zps43fd3da8.jpg
Basically, in the winter 80% of predation occurs around the full moon, even though they reduce the distance they move each day by almost half compared to around the new moon. The moon phase didn't affect habitat choice (ie tree age and density). As far as their movement, that corresponds with what I've observed this year. Although it's my first season after them, so take that for what it's worth :)
This could help target when you hunt them, scout for tracks in new areas, and look for trails to set snares on. For example I returned to a road that had many tracks earlier in the season close to a new moon, and today there were no recent tracks, and I would have missed many of the old ones if I hadn't known to look closely there. It'll be interesting to see if they reappear in the next week or two.
That being said, I managed to jump these two in relatively open trees around 4pm within a few days of the full moon last week, so perhaps it's not as relevant for the hunting part, depending on how you go about it.
http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh514/bc_d/IMG_20140214_172311_zps43fd3da8.jpg