Impact of hunting on snowshoe hare populations in Newfoundland ...

• Main Author: Joyce, Tammy Lee
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0099645; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0099645

Snowshoe hares were introduced to Newfoundland between 1864 and 1876 to provide food and hunting opportunities. At that time, Newfoundland, an island, had no small game species. Today, snowshoe hares are still mainly hunted for food, particularly in rural areas. Harvest management for snowshoe hare has changed very little in Newfoundland since it started in 1879, with unlimited harvest allowed from October to February each year. Snowshoe hares were in low numbers in Newfoundland from 1979 to 1995, and many hunters believed that the unlimited harvest was depleting the hare populations. Monitoring the effects of harvesting on snowshoe hare abundance is an arduous task, requiring monitoring effort throughout an entire hare cycle. I developed a modified, Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model to help with this task. Model parameter values were taken from the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Study. Harvesting applied to the model was derived from Newfoundland harvest statistics for 1965 to 1999. Harvesting lengthened ...