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Ecology, management and conservation in natural and modified habitats
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 34(4)

Rabbit conservation: models to evaluate the effects of timing of restocking on recipient and donor populations

Irene Cotilla A B and Rafael Villafuerte A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM),
Ronda de Toledo s/n, 13071 – Ciudad Real, Spain.

B Corresponding author. Email: Irene.Cotilla@uclm.es

Wildlife Research 34(4) 247-252 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR06154
Submitted: 16 November 2006  Accepted: 18 May 2007   Published: 28 June 2007

Abstract

In recent decades, the translocation of European wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been a common strategy used by gamekeepers and conservationists to improve populations with low rabbit abundance. Using a non-spatial, mixed stochastic–deterministic model, we assessed the effects of the timing of restocking of rabbits on the persistence of wild rabbit populations, as well as the effects of extraction on donor populations. Different age-structured restocking strategies and extraction rates were tested. We also assessed the number of restocking batches that a donor population can supply while remaining stable. Our results indicate that the best months to introduce individuals are October–March, with the highest success in January. In contrast, the best timing for extraction is during summer, when the number of individuals is high. Authorities should therefore include the timing and number of rabbits released or captured in their management strategies, especially where these factors have been previously overlooked.


Acknowledgements

We thank the Netlogo users for their help with the rabbit population model. We are especially grateful to Dr Elena Angulo for her comments on this manuscript. We thank English Manager Science Editing for the revision of the English. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. Funding was partially provided by the project grants REN 2001–0448, PAI 06–170, and CLG 2005–02340.


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