Oryctolagus cuniculus, European Rabbit

The European Rabbit is a widespread colonizer and is considered a pest outside its natural range, where eradication of the rabbit is priority for conservation (Cooke 2014, Cooke, Flux and Bonino 2018). However, only the natural range of Spain, Portugal, and southern France are considered in this global assessment. Assessment of the European Rabbit is filled with contradictions (Lees and Bell 2008, Delibes-Mateos et al. 2011). The European Rabbit is an important game species in Spain, Portugal and France, and the agriculture sector considers the species a pest (not a typical situation for a putatively Threatened species). On the other hand, it is an important ecosystem engineer (Galvez-Bravo et al. 2009) and a keystone species within its native range (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2008), serving as the dominant prey item for the highly endangered Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) and the Spanish Imperial Eagle (Aquila adalberti) (Ferrer and Negro 2004). However, from 1950 onwards, the European Rabbit declined dramatically throughout its native range to densities less than 10% of those found earlier in the 20th century mainly due to the irruption of viral diseases (Myxomatosis in the fifties and Rabbit Hemorrhagic disease, RHD, in the nineties), and habitat loss (Moreno et al. 2007, Delibes-Mateos et al. 2009a, Villafuerte et al. 2017). Other factors such as human induced mortality or predation may have played a role in rabbit decline, at least locally. On balance this situation led more than one decade ago to a classification of the European Rabbit as Vulnerable in Spain and Near Threatened in Portugal (Cabral et al. 2005, Villafuerte and Delibes-Mateos 2008). In recent years many rabbit populations, particularly in natural habitats, have continued declining (some have even become extirpated), while others, mostly in human-modified landscapes, have increased in numbers leading to an incr