1365-2664/asset/olbannerleft.gif?v=1&s=8b608cc23970983efcf0bf9354181123ee4feba9)
1365-2664/asset/olbannerright.gif?v=1&s=01405a21098d64198820bdbe2e30807b513e69f2)
You have full text access to this OnlineOpen article
Population responses to sterility imposed on female European rabbits
Article first published online: 28 FEB 2007
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01264.x
Additional Information
How to Cite
WILLIAMS, C. K., DAVEY, C. C., MOORE, R. J., HINDS, L. A., SILVERS, L. E., KERR, P. J., FRENCH, N., HOOD, G. M., PECH, R. P. and KREBS, C. J. (2007), Population responses to sterility imposed on female European rabbits. Journal of Applied Ecology, 44: 291–301. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01264.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 28 FEB 2007
- Article first published online: 28 FEB 2007
- Received 24 February 2006; final copy received 20 August 2006Editor: Simon Thirgood
Keywords:
- compensation;
- cost of reproduction;
- European rabbit;
- European rabbit flea;
- immunocontraception;
- management;
- myxoma virus;
- population;
- sterility;
- survival
Summary
- 1Additional methods are needed in Australia to control the European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, which continues to destroy valued native flora. A control option under development, immunocontraception, is intended to suppress the rabbit's high fertility. It would spread contagiously via genetically modified myxoma virus and European rabbit fleas Spilopsyllus cuniculi. An experiment with field populations of rabbits assessed whether suppressing fertility reduces their abundance.
- 2In south-eastern Australia, four treatments in three replicates were applied to 12 subpopulations of rabbits. The treatments were surgical sterilization of 0%, 40%, 60% and 80% of the adult and juvenile females trapped before the annual breeding seasons of 1993–96.
- 3The sterilized populations produced fewer young but the average adult population size remained unchanged in all treatments. Immigration was minimal in all treatments.
- 4Sterilized adult female rabbits survived much better than fertile females, indicating a high cost of reproduction. Immature rabbits and unsterilized adults of both sexes also survived better in the sterilization treatments. The improved survival in all rabbit classes compensated for reduced reproductive output.
- 5Fleas were fewer on both adult females and males in the sterilized populations but this did not impede transmission of myxomatosis.
- 6Synthesis and applications. Imposing sterility on rabbit populations reduces breeding-season peaks of abundance. Improved survival compensates for the sterility of up to 80% of females and sustains populations, even in the presence of drought and myxomatosis. Immunocontraception alone has poor prospects for controlling rabbits. Cost-effective rabbit control requires multiple, integrated forms of attrition.