Rabbits at risk in home range 03 March 2009 | News story In some
parts of the world they thrive, to the extent they are regarded
as pests, yet in their native range on the Iberian Peninsula
rabbits are Near Threatened with extinction, according to The
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Their decreasing numbers
have also had alarming impacts on the Critically Endangered
Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle. The European Rabbit
(Oryctolagus cuniculus) was introduced to Western Europe by man
as early as the Roman period, and since then to South America
and Australasia. Only Spain, Portugal and areas of North Africa
are its native homeland. Ironically, it is from these areas that
over-hunting, habitat loss and eradication programmes have
combined with two diseases (Myxomatosis and Rabbit Haemorrhagic
Virus), to threaten the European Rabbit's very existance. The
survival of the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) and Spanish
Imperial Eagle (Aquila adalberti) are pivotal on the success of
the rabbit, which is a