Rabbits as a keystone species in southern Europe

By M. Delibes‐Mateos, Steve Redpath, E. Angulo, P. Ferreras, R. Villafuerte. 2007

227 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cfd9eda47657331a72d6135e741ac08558a53101

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In Ecology

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

From local monitoring to a broad-scale viability assessment: a case study for the Bonelli’s Eagle in western Europe (2013, background): “…focused on the western European population of Bonelli’s Eagle (Aquila fasciata; see Plate 1), which corresponds to a fairly discrete demographic unit within a much larger distribution range extending from southeast Asia through the Middle East to the western Mediterranean (del Hoyo et al. 1992).”
Predator abundance in relation to small game management in southern Portugal: conservation implications (2009, background): “This is likely to be particularly relevant in the case of rabbits, which are a key prey for several endangered predators in the Iberian Peninsula (Ferrer and Negro 2004; Delibes-Mateos et al. 2007 ), but which were very scarce outside game estates.”
Comparative ecology of desert small mammals: a selective review of the past 30 years (2011, background): “Because European rabbits likely function as keystone species (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2007) the consequences of their introduction to arid ecosystems globally are potentially serious.”
Influence of landscape characteristics on carnivore diversity and abundance in Mediterranean farmland (2009, background): “…although rabbits are scarce throughout the study area, they tend to occur most frequently at the edge of shrubland habitats (Beja et al., 2007), which may thus provide favourable foraging grounds for a range of carnivores that feed preferentially on this prey (Delibes-Mateos et al., 2007).”
Rabbits: manageable environmental pests or participants in new Australian ecosystems? (2012, background): “Rabbits are increasingly seen as a key-stone species (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2007) and ecosystem engineers (Gálvez et al. 2008) and there is concern that absence of rabbits will result in long-term changes in Mediterranean habitats where rabbits evolved (Lees and Bell 2008).”
European rabbits as ecosystem engineers: warrens increase lizard density and diversity (2009, background): “Rabbits have been widely studied as a keystone species in Mediterranean food webs (e.g. Villafuerte et al. 1997; Delibes-Mateos et al. 2007), and are very relevant in the Iberian Peninsula, where they have important bottom-up consequences for endangered, charismatic species such as the Iberian lynx…”
Rabbit populations and game management: the situation after 15 years of rabbit haemorrhagic disease in central-southern Spain (2008, background): “They are a keystone species in the Iberian ecosystem (Delibes-Mateos et al. 2007), being the staple prey of at least 29 predators (Delibes and Hiraldo 1981), including the most endangered raptor (Spanish imperial eagle, Aquila adalberti) and carnivore (Iberian Lynx, Lynx pardinus) species in Europe ”
Long-term decline of the European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in south-western Spain (2007, background): “The decline in wild rabbit numbers in the Iberian Peninsula, especially since the introduction of RHD in 1990, has had many negative consequences (i.e. Delibes-Mateos et al. 2007).”