The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits

European rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, are the basic prey of several endangered predators and an important hunting bag in the area of its origin in southwestern Europe. Conversely, they are considered an undesirable species in other areas where they were introduced. Therefore, there is great inter...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Palomares, Francisco
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2003
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/51147
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/51147
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Oryctolagus cuniculus
Flooding
warrens
interannual density
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spelling The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbitsPalomares, FranciscoOryctolagus cuniculusFloodingwarrensinterannual densityEuropean rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, are the basic prey of several endangered predators and an important hunting bag in the area of its origin in southwestern Europe. Conversely, they are considered an undesirable species in other areas where they were introduced. Therefore, there is great interest in understanding the factors that influence population dynamics and abundance of this species. I studied the effects of relatively common heavy rains on inter-annual variations in rabbit density in four habitats of Doñana National Park and surrounding areas (southwestern Spain) during several years when rainfall was either lower or higher than average. I estimated spring and autumn rabbit densities by line transect sampling between autumn 1993 and autumn 1998, and counted rabbit warrens and entrances in two of the habitats (one with and the other without scrubland vegetation) in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Rabbit density significantly decreased in all habitats during the rainy years, densities being on average 5.3 and 4.6 times lower for spring and autumn censuses, respectively. Both number of warrens and entrances significantly decreased after two consecutive years of heavy rain in both habitat types, although in the scrubland habitats some recovery was observed during the second consecutive year of heavy rains. The area where warrens were apparently free of the effects of rains was only between 2.7 and 3.8% in the open habitat and 21.5% in the scrubland. At least for the open habitat, no clear relationship was observed between the height above sea level and whether warrens were affected by rain or not. The results indicate that heavy rains may be an important factor decreasing rabbit density, at least in flat areas, by negatively acting on warrens during the breeding period.Peer reviewedElsevier201220122003info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501http://hdl.handle.net/10261/51147reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Ingléshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1078/1616-5047-00088info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/511472026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
title The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
spellingShingle The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
Palomares, Francisco
Oryctolagus cuniculus
Flooding
warrens
interannual density
title_short The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
title_full The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
title_fullStr The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
title_full_unstemmed The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
title_sort The negative impact of heavy rains on the abundance of a Mediterranean population of European rabbits
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Palomares, Francisco
author Palomares, Francisco
author_facet Palomares, Francisco
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Oryctolagus cuniculus
Flooding
warrens
interannual density
topic Oryctolagus cuniculus
Flooding
warrens
interannual density
description European rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, are the basic prey of several endangered predators and an important hunting bag in the area of its origin in southwestern Europe. Conversely, they are considered an undesirable species in other areas where they were introduced. Therefore, there is great interest in understanding the factors that influence population dynamics and abundance of this species. I studied the effects of relatively common heavy rains on inter-annual variations in rabbit density in four habitats of Doñana National Park and surrounding areas (southwestern Spain) during several years when rainfall was either lower or higher than average. I estimated spring and autumn rabbit densities by line transect sampling between autumn 1993 and autumn 1998, and counted rabbit warrens and entrances in two of the habitats (one with and the other without scrubland vegetation) in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Rabbit density significantly decreased in all habitats during the rainy years, densities being on average 5.3 and 4.6 times lower for spring and autumn censuses, respectively. Both number of warrens and entrances significantly decreased after two consecutive years of heavy rain in both habitat types, although in the scrubland habitats some recovery was observed during the second consecutive year of heavy rains. The area where warrens were apparently free of the effects of rains was only between 2.7 and 3.8% in the open habitat and 21.5% in the scrubland. At least for the open habitat, no clear relationship was observed between the height above sea level and whether warrens were affected by rain or not. The results indicate that heavy rains may be an important factor decreasing rabbit density, at least in flat areas, by negatively acting on warrens during the breeding period.
publishDate 2003
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2003
2012
2012
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/51147
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/51147
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv http://dx.doi.org/10.1078/1616-5047-00088
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15.812429

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