The Population Ecology of the Wild Rabbit (Oryctolagus Cuniculus (L)), in a Mediterranean-Type Climate in New South Wales.

Abstract

A 3-yr study (1967-70) in a 280-ha enclosure on the Riverine Plain, where the rabbit population had not returned to its pre-myxomatosis high level. Rabbit warrens were concentrated in sandy Callitris columellaris woodland. Although myxomatosis still caused significant (4-14%) mortality of young rabbits, the main population control was predation by feral cats (Felis catus) and birds of prey. The effectiveness of predation since myxomatosis is probably due to cessation of trapping and poisoning, measures which destroyed relatively more predators than rabbits.