page_title: Dietary biology of the Eurasian eagle-owl
section_title: Lagomorphs
hierarchical_section_title: Dietary biology of the Eurasian eagle-owl / Prey types / Lagomorphs
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Wildkaninchen (Oryctolagus cuniculus) English: European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Austin's Ferry, Tasmania, Australia Español: Conejo europeo (Oryctolagus cuniculus) en Austin's Ferry, Tasmania, Australia. Français: Un Lapin européen (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Photo prise à Austin's Ferry, en Tasmanie (Australie). Hrvatski: Europski kunić (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Italiano: Coniglio europeo (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Nederlands: Konijn (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Polski: Królik europejski (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Português: Coelho-europeu (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Tiếng Việt: Thỏ rừng châu Âu (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Русский: Европейский кролик (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Українська: Європейський кролик (Oryctolagus cuniculus) עברית: ארנבון מצוי فارسی: خرگوش اروپایی
context_page_description: The Eurasian eagle-owl may well be the most powerful extant species of owl, able to attack and kill large prey far beyond the capacities of most other living owls. However, the species is even more marked for its ability to live on more diverse prey than possibly any other comparably sized raptorial bird, which, given its considerable size, is almost fully restricted to eagles. This species can adapt to surprisingly small prey where it is the only kind available and to large prey where it is abundant. Eurasian eagle-owls feed most commonly on small mammals weighing 100 g or more, although nearly 45% of the prey species recorded have an average adult body mass of less than 100 g. Usually 55-80% of the food of eagle-owls is mammalian.
context_section_description: Throughout the western Mediterranean region, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl is something of a specialist on a single prey species: the European rabbit. The rabbit historically reached extremely high densities in Iberian scrub, i.e. more than 40 per every 1 square hectare (2471 square acres). In central Spain, up to 73.1% of the recorded prey for Eurasian eagle-owls, by number, are be rabbits. Where still available, they are also the main prey in Portugal and central France. However, following the devastation of the wild rabbit due to rabbit haemorrhagic disease, the local eagle-owls have frequently had to adapt to other, often smaller, prey. On the other hand, given the now much reduced numbers of rabbits, the eagle-owls still regularly select rabbits, seemingly out of proportion to their commonality. Although large mature wild rabbits commonly weigh 1,700 to 2,400 g (3.7 to 5.3 lb), the eagle-owls usually hunt smaller specimens, often with an average weight around 1,000 g (2.2 lb), with young rabbits usually selected in spring and summer and subadults selected in the autumn and winter. This is largely due to the behaviour of rabbits, with younger rabbits being forced to distribute following weaning, being less cautious in behaviour and occupying less primary habitat, thus being forced out of the confines of their burrows more regularly than mature adults. However, the estimated average weight of rabbits taken can be variable, reported from as little as 800 g (1.8 lb) in a study from Spain to as much as 1,900 g (4.2 lb) in the Netherlands.
  Three other lagomorphs extensively overlap in range with Eurasian eagle-owls in Europe, the mountain hare (Lepus timidus) in the northern portions, the European hare (Lepus europaeus) in the central and eastern portions and the Granada hare (Lepus granatensis) in the western Mediterranean portions. These species are all larger on average than a rabbit, averaging 2,000 g (4.4 lb) in the Granada hare, roughly twice that in the European hare and the mountain hare being intermediate between the two. Hares are often considerably secondary in prey remains in most European biomes by number but often are a significant contributor of prey biomass for eagle-owls. For example, in Finland, the mountain hare made up only 5.3% of prey by number but made up 56.2% of the prey biomass as the hare specimens were all large, with an estimated mean mass of 3,900 g (8.6 lb). On the contrary, the mountain hare was the numerous prey species in one study from the Swiss Alps, making up 28.3% of the prey by number. Another area near Europe where hares were numerically important was in southwestern Turkey, with the European hare being the second most common prey species by number. There it consisted of 18.1% of the quantity and presumably a huge portion of the biomass. In lower Austria, the European hare was also the second most abundant species in the diet but the estimated average weight of hares taken was rather low, at 850 g (1.87 lb), indicating young hares of probably less than a month old are most often taken there. On the other hand, in Slovenia, Netherlands and Bavaria, the European hares taken were estimated to average 2,500 g (5.5 lb), 4,500 g (9.9 lb) and 4,750 g (10.47 lb), respectively. The European hare was also the second most common prey species in a study from the Czech Republic.
  Outside of southwestern Europe, the next closest association between lagomorphs and this species is in the arid steppe of southern Russia, hares are apparently the primary prey of the local eagle-owls. Little has been published in recent ornithological review, but old studies have indicated that the eagle-owls in this region are so dependent on hares, primarily again the mountain hare species, that cyclical reductions in numbers of the hares are followed immediately by a reduction of the local eagle-owls. A similar phenomenon has been noted in the great horned owl in its association with the snowshoe hare in the American boreal forest. The same prey, the mountain hare, was the most important along the Pechora River in Russia, m
caption: A young European rabbit, the primary food for western European eagle-owls.
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