Two viral diseases, myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease , combined with habitat loss and overhunting has led to the rapid demise of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) , which lives in Spain and Portugal; studies suggest population is now about 5 percent of what it was 50 years ago....[More]
EUROPEAN RABBIT
Two viral diseases, myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease, combined with habitat loss and overhunting has led to the rapid demise of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), which lives in Spain and Portugal; studies suggest population is now about 5 percent of what it was 50 years ago. This is bad news for the Iberian lynx and the imperial eagle, predators that dine on the bunnies and are now dangerously close to extinction, according to Smith. Although O. cuniculus may be in dire trouble in its native Spain and Portugal, it is thriving in other parts of the world where it has been introduced. The rabbit, however, is considered a pest in Australia, where it has pushed aside native animals by outcompeting them for food and shelter.
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JOSÉ ARDAIZ
AMAMI RABBIT
Measuring about as long as a medium-size house cat (18 inches, or 45 centimeters), the Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi) lives in underground burrows in forest valleys on two islands off southern Japan, Amami-Oshima and Tokuno-Shima....[More]
AMAMI RABBIT
Measuring about as long as a medium-size house cat (18 inches, or 45 centimeters), the Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi) lives in underground burrows in forest valleys on two islands off southern Japan, Amami-Oshima and Tokuno-Shima. The Amami's population has declined by 20 percent since the early 1990s, thanks to humans who have introduced dogs, mongooses and other predators into their natural habitat as well as displaced forested acreage to develop resorts, golf courses and roads. According to Fumio Yamada, an ecologist at the Kansai Research Center in Kyoto, there are currently about 2,000 to 4,800 rabbits on Amami-Ohshima and just 120 to 300 remaining on Tokuno-Shima.
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HIROMITSU KATSU
HISPID HARE
The hispid hare's (Caprolagus hispidus) habitat stretches across Himalayan foothill regions in India, Nepal and Bangladesh . In the mid-1960s, scientists were concerned the hare had vanished, but then one was captured in 1971 in India's Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ....[More]
HISPID HARE
The hispid hare's (Caprolagus hispidus) habitat stretches across Himalayan foothill regions in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In the mid-1960s, scientists were concerned the hare had vanished, but then one was captured in 1971 in India's Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. No one really knows how many hispid hares remain, but the population is most likely declining as humans continue to encroach on its habitat. "The animals are restricted to tiny fragments of unburnt, marshy habitat," says Diana Bell, a zoologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, but they are continually threatened by locals, who burn the tall grass where they live.
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DIANA BELL
THE LOWER KEYS MARSH RABBIT
This Sylvilagus palustris hefneri was named after the king of (Playboy) bunnies himself— Hugh Hefner , who funded a 1984 study establishing the animal as a unique subspecies within the species S....[More]
THE LOWER KEYS MARSH RABBIT
This Sylvilagus palustris hefneri was named after the king of (Playboy) bunnies himself—Hugh Hefner, who funded a 1984 study establishing the animal as a unique subspecies within the species S. palustris. As the common name implies, the Lower Keys marsh rabbit inhabits wetlands in the Lower Keys, the westernmost islands in the archipelago that stretches off southern Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. "We don't have a really good population estimate," says Craig Faulhaber, a wildlife biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. But the animal is in danger of extinction, he adds, "[because] so much of the wetlands in the Keys have been developed." What's really cool about Hef's real bunny: it can swim! (The swimming behavior of the marsh rabbit is not unique. S. aquaticus, the swamp rabbit, also swims, according to both Faulhaber and Smith.)
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CRAIG FAULHABER
NEW ENGLAND COTTONTAIL
Studies suggest that small populations of the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) still exist in Maine, New Hampshire, New York State, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and in Cape Cod, Mass....[More]
NEW ENGLAND COTTONTAIL
Studies suggest that small populations of the New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) still exist in Maine, New Hampshire, New York State, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and in Cape Cod, Mass. But the groups are fragmented, divided by highways, farms and housing developments. As of 2007 there were as few as 5,000 cottontails left.
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LINDA CULLIVAN
VOLCANO RABBIT
The world's second-smallest rabbit (after the pygmy ), Mexico's volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) measures between 11 and 13 inches (28 and 33 centimeters) long....[More]
VOLCANO RABBIT
The world's second-smallest rabbit (after the pygmy), Mexico's volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) measures between 11 and 13 inches (28 and 33 centimeters) long. It lives on the slopes of volcanoes surrounding Mexico City at elevations ranging from 9,200 to 14,000 feet (2,800 to 4,250 meters), making its meals out of a thick wiry grass called "zacaton". Unfortunately for the diminutive rabbit, cattle ranchers burn the zacaton (because their cattle find it unpalatable) and other locals cut it down and use it for various purposes, including basket weaving, according to Arizona State's Andrew Smith. A 1994 study concluded the volcano rabbit population back then hovered between 2,478 and 12,120 individuals.
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ANDREW SMITH
PYGMY RABBIT
The tiniest rabbit in the world, the Columbia Basin pygmy (a distinct population segment within the species Brachylagus idahoensis ) found in central Washington State measures a mere 10 inches (25 centimeters)—about the length of a pencil—and weighs less than a pound....[More]
PYGMY RABBIT
The tiniest rabbit in the world, the Columbia Basin pygmy (a distinct population segment within the species Brachylagus idahoensis) found in central Washington State measures a mere 10 inches (25 centimeters)—about the length of a pencil—and weighs less than a pound. Once inhabiting land immediately east of the Columbia River, the tiny critter is now believed to be extinct in the wild, according to Tom Buckley, a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS). In 2001 the FWS teamed with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to launch a program for breeding captive rabbits and reintroducing them into the wild. In a blog post published two months ago, ScientificAmerican.com's Ivan Oransky (who in 2007 spent a week with the people trying to rescue the rabbits in Washington and Oregon) reported that federal officials were on the verge of dropping the multimillion dollar program to save the wild pygmy. But Buckley tells ScientificAmerican.com that, so far, funding continues.
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JIM WITHAM
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
you clearly don't understand the concept of trophic cascades, do you? less rabbits, more grass and vegetation, more insects? less predators such as lynxes or coyotes, which in turn keep other prey animals in check?
The European rabbit may be locally threatened, but it can easily be reintroduced. This is a mere management problem. There is certainly no danger of extinction.
Are you kidding me! Poor rabbits is right! They can be reintroduced-from where? This is just the tip of the iceberg-what will become extinct next? MAN! We'd react then to prevent that. The cycle of life depends on all creatures great and small. The Earth's survival is intertwined for all time by all its creatures!
Hey guys, what's the matter with you? And I mean it. I can hardly believe that people so highly educated as to be SciAm readers can still doubt the fact that the Earth's delicate ecological balance is in jeopady here. If someone is shameless enough to say 'it's a frigging rabbit, who cares?' sonner or later nature will say 'it's a frigging human, who cares?' Come on! Wake up! We're still on time.
I'm an Australian. We have quite a few rabbits that are surplus to requirements.... If people are going to get worried/upset over every extinction that is going occur over the next century or so, whatever we do, then they have a problem. I think there may be something to be said for being a bit more selective. Let's face it with at least 9 billion people in prospect by mid century a lot of wild animals have a lot to worry about.
"They" have a problem? What on Earth does that mean? The current rate of extinction exceeds by orders of magnitude the rate during any of the mega-extinctions in our planet's history, even the great Permian extinction, during which 95% of living species disappeared. If this isn't a problem for you, what would be?
9. robertboot@gmail.com
in reply to ajhil11:38 AM 4/23/09
My death, but that's going to happen too. A couple of comments: 1. With the number of people extant & expected there is & will be little room for animals - extinctions will happen. 2. There is no prospect that governments will do enough, soon enough to make any difference. This is true of both climate change and extinctions. 3. The biosphere has recovered from mass extinctions before as you note - the Permian was a longish time ago. 4. I take the long view. Sometime over the next few millenia humans will realise that there are too many of them; unless the Four Horsemen reduce the population by about 90% before then... Interestingly the only people to have attempted to address the real problem, the Chinese, have been vilified for it by those in the west who believe in an inalienable right to breed without limit.
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9 Comments
Add Commentit's a friggin rabbit, who cares? if a few of them go extinct, so much the better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou clearly don't understand the concept of trophic cascades, do you? less rabbits, more grass and vegetation, more insects? less predators such as lynxes or coyotes, which in turn keep other prey animals in check?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgreat slide show. poor rabbits! thanks for highlighting this issue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe European rabbit may be locally threatened, but it can easily be reintroduced. This is a mere management problem. There is certainly no danger of extinction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you kidding me! Poor rabbits is right! They can be reintroduced-from where? This is just the tip of the iceberg-what will become extinct next? MAN! We'd react then to prevent that. The cycle of life depends on all creatures great and small. The Earth's survival is intertwined for all time by all its creatures!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey guys, what's the matter with you? And I mean it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can hardly believe that people so highly educated as to be SciAm readers can still doubt the fact that the Earth's delicate ecological balance is in jeopady here.
If someone is shameless enough to say 'it's a frigging rabbit, who cares?' sonner or later nature will say 'it's a frigging human, who cares?'
Come on! Wake up! We're still on time.
I'm an Australian. We have quite a few rabbits that are surplus to requirements.... If people are going to get worried/upset over every extinction that is going occur over the next century or so, whatever we do, then they have a problem. I think there may be something to be said for being a bit more selective. Let's face it with at least 9 billion people in prospect by mid century a lot of wild animals have a lot to worry about.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"They" have a problem? What on Earth does that mean? The current rate of extinction exceeds by orders of magnitude the rate during any of the mega-extinctions in our planet's history, even the great Permian extinction, during which 95% of living species disappeared. If this isn't a problem for you, what would be?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy death, but that's going to happen too. A couple of comments:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. With the number of people extant & expected there is & will be little room for animals - extinctions will happen.
2. There is no prospect that governments will do enough, soon enough to make any difference. This is true of both climate change and extinctions.
3. The biosphere has recovered from mass extinctions before as you note - the Permian was a longish time ago.
4. I take the long view. Sometime over the next few millenia humans will realise that there are too many of them; unless the Four Horsemen reduce the population by about 90% before then... Interestingly the only people to have attempted to address the real problem, the Chinese, have been vilified for it by those in the west who believe in an inalienable right to breed without limit.