Captive Breeding of Wild Rabbits: Techniques and Population Dynamics

Abstract

The wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), originally from the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, is now one of the most widespread species in the world. The wild rabbit can be found on almost all continents, and it is very adaptive (Flux and Fullagar 1992). Although the wild rabbit is considered a pest species in other latitudes (Smith and Trout 1994), it is an ecologically important species in the Mediterranean. In Spain, natural wild rabbit populations have been reduced in the last few years, primarily due to the deterioration of natural habitats and also due to successive outbreaks of myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD; Calvete et al. 2002). Declines in rabbit populations have affected predators that prefer rabbits, such as the Spanish lynx (Lynx pardinus) or the Spanish Imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti), both of which are currently at a risk of extinction (Ferrer and Negro 2004). Conservation efforts for these predators involve supplementing declining wild rabbit populations and reestablishing wild rabbits to areas from which they have been extirpated. There are 2 main sources of rabbits used in repopulation programs. Rabbits can be translocated from areas where they are abundant, or they can be produced by captive breeding programs. Although translocation is a frequently used practice (Arthur 1989, Mena and Molera 1997) it has some serious drawbacks, including the risk of both genetic and sanitary contamination. Efforts have been made to breed wild rabbits in captivity (Mykytowycz 1958, Parer et al. 1987, Arenas 2002, Arenas et al. 2003, Gonzalez 2003) but their main problems are 1) intensive commercial rabbitry systems strongly modify the ethology of the rabbits and therefore stress them, thereby affecting their fertility rates, and 2) extensive rabbitry systems (e.g., breeding in land or in natural burrows) makes the capture and management of the rabbits difficult. Thus, our main objective was to design a semiextensive system for breeding wild rabbits in captivity that provides an efficient way to maintain the genetic diversity of rabbits, while producing healthy rabbits that will be used for repopulation efforts in a safe and programmed way. With this work we then offer environmental managers suitable techniques for the breeding of healthy and genetically pure rabbits with the objective of repopulation in Mediterranean ecosystems. A second objective was to benchmark important demographic parameters from this population.