The Declines of the Wild Rabbit (oryctolagus Cuniculus) and the Iberian Lynx (lynx Pardinus) in Spain: Redirecting Conservation Efforts

The wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) are endemic species of the Iberian Peninsula. The Iberian lynx is a specialist predator, listed as critically endangered, and rabbit represents the bulk of its diet as well as of many other Iberian predators. The decline of this emblematic predator has been recurrently explained by means of rabbit decline in Spain. A recent study has shown that wild rabbit populations have declined 55% in three decades in the country. Habitat destruction and fragmentation by infrastructures, the abandonment of marginal crops, the intensification of farmland ecosystems, and the direct and continuous persecution by farmers to preserve their crops have been claimed as the main factors that account for this dramatic decline. In parallel, the impact of both myxoma virus and rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) implied a relevant increase in rabbit mortality rates, while the species coped with a strong hunting pressure and an increase of competition with other wild herbivores. At present, all of these threats have not yet disappeared and conservation efforts have been very scarce. However, previous to the rabbit decline, the area of distribution of the Iberian lynx had already suffered a reduction higher than 50%. This fact suggests that the extinction forces operating on Iberian lynx populations were other than rabbit population decline. The most probable hypothesis is that the main factors that accounted for this reduction were the direct persecution of the species and the massive non-selective ∗ Correspondence Author: Departamento de Biología, Unidad de Zoología. C/ Darwin, 2. Edificio Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain. [email protected] / [email protected] Sara Cabezas-Díaz, Jorge Lozano and Emilio Virgós 284 predator control. Indeed, rabbit is abundant enough to maintain stable populations of Iberian lynx in many places, but the authorized predator control is ongoing and intensive, preventing lynx establishment. In fact, Iberian lynx populations are now located in areas where predator control is not applied and rabbits are really scarce. The Conservation National Plan for the Iberian Lynx has focused on introducing rabbits into these marginal areas, favoring the increase of Iberian lynx productivity. It is time to add as one of the main objectives of the lynx recovery plans the removal of the causes of non-natural mortality to guarantee the survival of dispersing individuals and the success of future reintroductions. Despite the minor relevance of rabbit recovery to Iberian lynx conservation plans, we advocate for a National Plan for rabbit recovery to coordinate the actions that guarantee the conservation of wild rabbit populations in Spain, and thus to preserve also this endemic key species of the Mediterranean ecosystems.