Scientific Naturalist contribution documents a long-distance dispersal event in mountain hares, suggesting challenges to current ecological understanding.
COVER PHOTO : Photo of a GPS‐collared adult male mountain hare ( Lepus timidus ) taken at a trapping site in Brumunddal Municipality, Norway on April 12 th , 2026, at one of the study sites of the HareKlima project. In their The Scientific Naturalist contribution, Pedersen et al. ( Ecology , Volume 107, Issue 5; Article e70414; DOI: 10.1002/ecy.70414 ) document an unsuspected long‐distance dispersal event of a subadult male mountain hare (59 km straight‐line distance) that occurred in January 2025. Such events may be infrequent but challenge our current perception of the dispersal capacity of mountain hares and other smaller‐bodied mammal species. These dispersal events may prove important for gene flow and recolonization after local population extinctions. Photo credit: Ole‐André Lagmandokk/University of Inland Norway.
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