European rabbit hunting: Management changes and inertia in the governance system in a period of population fluctuations

The paradox of endangered European rabbits regarded as pests on the Iberian Peninsula: trends in subspecies matter

“…Although questionnaire surveys may be affected by some degree of subjectivity, we are confident that in our study, bias is likely to be small. Spanish senior administrative game officers are generally experienced in wildlife management, and possess the best available information to answer our relatively simple question on rabbit population trajectories (Piorno et al 2020). As a result, we gathered an unprecedented volume of data on rabbit population trends across mainland Spain, and used these to compare and contrast between subspecies.…”

“…Each estate must produce a plan every 4−5 yr based on abundance estimates of game species (Ríos-Saldaña et al 2013) and report game bag records at the end of each hunting season. In addition, in some of the provinces, rabbit population surveys are carried out by the environmental agencies of the regional governments (Piorno et al 2020). Rabbit trends reported in this study are based on abundance information collated by provincial game officers.…”

“…The questionnaire was part of a larger project that investigated how rabbit hunting management has varied since the 1990s in relation to abundance changes (Piorno et al 2020). In this study, we only considered the question that referred to rabbit trends between 2011 and 2016.…”

Comfort over safety: thermoregulation overshadows predation risk effects in the activity of a keystone prey

“…Several important implications might have not been totally grasped by this study, but require serious empirical consideration, such as more accurate metrics to measure food quality and methods that take into consideration all classes of predators, including raptors. However, this study still provides important insights into the drivers of activity levels in key prey species which are particularly relevant to guide management actions targeted at multifunctional and ecologically structuring prey such as the Iberian rabbit in Mediterranean ecosystems (Delibes‐Mateos et al., 2007, 2008; Monterroso, Garrote et al., 2016; Piorno et al., 2020). Further research should explore spatial variation in these temporal strategies and physiological stress responses as a measure of the animals' assessment of predation risk (Monclus et al., 2009) to complement the behavioral response and allow obtaining a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms enabling prey species to cope with predation risk (Gaynor et al., 2019; Navarro‐Castilla et al., 2019).…”

“…It is the most profitable and stalked prey for most extant predators in the area (Delibes‐Mateos et al., 2008), including the highly threatened Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) and the Spanish Imperial eagle ( Aquila adalberti ) that are strictly dependent on the Iberian rabbit (Ferrer & Negro, 2004; Monterroso, Garrote et al., 2016; Monterroso et al., 2020). The Iberian rabbit is also one of the most favored game species and responsible for significant economic activity in rural settings (Angulo & Villafuerte, 2004; Piorno et al., 2020). However, sharp population declines, particularly in the O. c. algirus subspecies (Vaquerizas et al., 2020), have prompted its up‐listing to the ‘endangered’ status in the IUCN's red list assessment (Villafuerte & Delibes‐Mateos, 2019).…”