Federcaccia Lombardy and Studio Geco, in charge of carrying out the research, released the July newsletter relating to Hare project. In the last issue the definitive picture of the releases, the post-release monitoring, health surveys, mobility and use of space, environmental surveys of agricultural land use, theses and trainees, in addition to dissemination initiatives. As for the monitoring of radio-collared hares, there were two phases.
In the first, identification was carried out by means of detection with an omnidirectional antenna mounted on a car, along predefined transects, of the areas occupied by the newly released animals, up to their settlement, and daily verification of survival and movement. The second phase instead consisted of radio-tracking activities during 4 field trips, 2 during the day and 2 at night, per decade. The monitoring activity with radio-tracking, thanks to the mortality sensor which the collars used are equipped with, allows to identify and collect dead hares.
The protocol developed, agreed with the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna (IZSLER) with which a technical-scientific collaboration agreement is in force, provides for the collection of the carcass in bags labeled with an identification code useful for tracing the sample process up to the delivery of the diagnostic report. Not only the carcasses of hares with radio-collar, but also those of hares and other lagomorphs are conferred to the provincial section of the IZSLER (cottontail, wild rabbit) found during the monitoring activities.