Factors affecting Brown hare (Lepus europaeus) density were studied in protected areas of northern Italy with the aim of evaluating the influence of vegetation type on the distribution of animals in arable farmland. Drive censuses were used on sample plots to assess autumn and spring hare densities. Correlations and multiple regression analysis showed that ploughed fields in spring, and maize and rice crops in autumn have a negative effect on density, while the grass edges and meadows in spring, and poplar groves and wheat in autumn, have a positive effect. Lucerne crops, in which farming practices induce a high death rate of leverets, reduce density. The effect of natural vegetation is not clear. Landscape diversity, which in the study areas depends on certain unfavourable crops, is inversely correlated with autumn density.