Deadly Rabbit Disease May Have Doomed Iberian Lynx

The 1988 arrival of viral hemorrhagic disease (VHD) in Spain devastated that country's European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) population and, in the process, possibly doomed the local species most adapted to hunt rabbit, the Iberian lynx(Lynx pardinus).

The wildcat is now critically endangered, with an estimated 100 to 200 animals remaining in the wild. That makes them the world's most endangered feline species. The species numbered 4,000 animals in 1960.

One of the few areas where Iberian lynx still reside is Spain's Doñana National Park. According to research published in the March 2011 issue of Basic and Applied Ecology, the lynx was the only predator in the park not able to adapt to eating other prey when the rabbit population crashed.


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