caa a22 4500 469097213 CHVBK 20180323133034.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e19920201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00317225 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00317225 Hjältén Joakim Department of Wildlife Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-901 83, Umeå, Sweden aut Plant sex and hare feeding preferences [Elektronische Daten] [Joakim Hjältén] Summary: To evaluate the general extent to which sex-related differences in palatability occur in boreal dioecious woody plants, males and females of five dioecious woody plant species were presented to free-ranging mountain hares (Lepus timidus) during winter. Hares strongly preferred branches from male plants when feeding on Populus tremula and Salix caprea and weakly preferred male S. pentandra. However, they did not show any sex-related preference when feeding on the other two species studied (Myrica gale and Juniperus communis). Nitrogen concentration and, to some degree, digestibility showed strong relationships with hare food preferences. By contrast, the concentration of phenolics was only weakly related to feeding preference. Phenolics could, nevertheless, still be important if only one or a few specific compounds deter hare feeding. These results indicate that sex-related differences in plant palatability in the boreal forest might be more widespread than previously believed, particularly for species of the family Salicaceae. Thus, herbivores might be responsible for the female-biased sex ratios found in willow populations in northern Scandinavia (e.g. Elmqvist et al. 1988). Springer-Verlag, 1992 Food selection nationallicence Hares nationallicence Dioecious woody plants nationallicence Nutritional quality nationallicence Sex ratios nationallicence Oecologia Springer-Verlag 89/2(1992-02-01), 253-256 0029-8549 89:2<253 1992 89 442 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00317225 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00317225 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Hjältén Joakim Department of Wildlife Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-901 83, Umeå, Sweden aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Oecologia Springer-Verlag 89/2(1992-02-01), 253-256 0029-8549 89:2<253 1992 89 442 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer