Lazo, A., De le Court, C., and Soriguer, R. C. 1992.
Evaluation of hare abundance allowed by their use of attraction points.
Z. Säugetierkunde 57: 373-379.

Studied the space use by hares (Lepus granatensis) which was affected by wooded stakes placed in an open grassland at Doñana Biological Reserve (SW Spain). Densities of hare pellets on plots centered on the stakes were higher than on plots not centered on them. The use of stakes by hares seems to be related either to an anti-predator behaviour of to a social behaviour of ground marking. Neither the time nor spatial variation in hare abundance was related to food supply or to the herbaceous layer characteristics. Rather, the seasonal abundance of hares in the study area depended on the flooding patterns of adjacent plant communities. The use of stakes as an improved version onf the pellet-count method is proposed. This modified method considerably reduces the sampling effort necessary to carry out realistic estimations of spatial and seasonal variations in the relative abundance of hares in open fields.

Lazo_et_al_1992_Evaluation_of_hare_abundance.pdf

Letty, J., Marchandeau, S., Clobert, J., and Aubineau, J. 2000.
Improving translocation success: an experimental study of antistress treatment and release method for wild rabbits.
Animal Conservation 3: 211-219.

Translocation is an important tool in conservation biology. However, translocation success is generally low for numerous animal species, therefore experiments are required for improvement. We carried out an experimental translocation of European wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus ). The results may be of great interest for conservation biology, although we used a common species. As rabbits are known to experience a high mortality during the first days following release, it was necessary to assess the influence of handling trauma and environment novelty, respectively, and ways of suppressing them. Both tranquillization treatment during handling and a 'soft' release protocol (acclimatization pens in the new territory) were tested. Tranquillization did not increase survival, while the effect of acclimatization depended on sex. Females survived better when acclimatized, while males showed the opposite tendency. This difference is discussed in terms of sex-specific social behaviour, which is possibly an important correlate of translocation success. Finally, environmental stress seemed to override handling stress in determining the level of early survival for translocated wild rabbits.

Letty_et_al_2000_Rabbit_antistress_treatment_and_release_method.pdf

Letty, J., Aubineau, J., Marchandeau, S., and Clobert, J. 2003.
Effect of translocation on survival in wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
Mamm. Biol. 68(4): 250-255.

Translocation is a common practice in conservation biology and wildlife management. However, the factors of translocation success very often remain unknown and studies aiming at investigating the biological consequences of translocation are scarce. The wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus is a suitable model to study translocation success because the results may directly be applied to manage this major game species in south-western Europe. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of translocation handling (i.e. storage and transport) on the early mortality after release. To avoid a mix-up with the effect of novelty of the environment, we released handled individuals back into their own range of origin.

Letty_et_al_2003_Effect_of_translocation_on_rabbit_survival.pdf

Litvaitis, J. A.,  Bertran, J. F., Delibes, M.,  Moreno, S., and Villafuerte, R.1996.
Sustaining felid populations in human-dominated landscapes.
Journal of Wildlife Research 1(3): 292-296.

Worldwide, populations of wild cats have been reduced and fragmented by exploitation and contemporary land uses. Although many of these populations are now protected from legal exploitation. they continue to decline as human-related factors (e.g., habitat degradation, poaching, and vehicle coIlisions) and stochastic events limit survival and reproduction. Local efforts to protect endangered populations of felids will likely fail because of the area requirements of these wide-ranging carnivores. Previous research has demonstrated the imponance of rnaintaining demographic connections (via habitat corridors) to ensure long-term viability of these populations. However, such management efforts may require decades to implement and small populations may perish before such effons are completed. Therefore, we suggest that conservationists consider a multi-scaled approach in space (local, landscape, regional, and international) and time (immediate action, interim steps, and long-term goals) to restoring and maintaining these populations. The advantages and limitations of such an approach are examined with information on bobcats (L rufus) in the northeastem United States and lberian Iynx (Lynx pardina) in southem Spain, Persistence of disjunct populations of felids in human-dominated habitats will likely be dependent on management efforts at several spatial and temporal scales.

Litvaitis_et_al_1996_Felid_in_human-dominated_landscapes.pdf

Lloret, F., Calvo, E., Pons, X., and Díaz-Delgado, R. 2002.
Wildfires and landscape patterns in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula.
Landscape Ecology 17: 745-759.

The relations between disturbance regime and landscape patterns have been developed from a theoretical perspective, but few studies have tested these relations when forces promoting opposing heterogeneity patterns are simultaneously operating on a landscape. This work provides quantitative evidence of these relations in areas dominated by human activity, showing that landscape heterogeneity decreases disturbance spread. In turn, disturbance introduces a source of landscape heterogeneity, but it is not enough to counterbalance the homogeneity trend due to agricultural abandonment. Land cover changes and wildfire occurrence (fires larger than 0.3 km2) have been monitored in the Tivissa municipality (208.4 km2) (Catalonia, NE Spain) from 1956 to 1993. Land cover maps were obtained from 1956, 1978 and 1993 and they were overlaid with fire occurrence maps obtained for the 1975-1995 period from 60 m resolution remote sensing images, which allow the identification of burned areas by sudden drops in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Changes in landscape patterns in relation to fire regime have been analyzed considering several parameters: patch density, mean patch size, mean distance to the nearest neighbour of the same category, edge density, and the Shannon diversity index. In the 1956-1993 period there is a trend to increasing landscape homogenization due to the expansion of shrublands linked to a decrease in forest surface, and to the abandonment of agricultural lands. This trend, however, is not constant along all the period. Fires are more likely to occur in woody, homogenous areas, increasing landscape heterogeneity, as observed in the 1978-1993 period. This increase in heterogeneity does not counterbalance the general trend to landscape homogenization as a consequence of agricultural abandonment and the coalescence of natural vegetation patches.

Lloret_et_al_2002_Wildfires_and_landscape_patterns_in_eastern_Iberia.pdf

Lombardi, L., Fernández, N., Moreno, S., and Villafuerte, R. 2004.
Habitat-related differences in rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) abundance, distribution, and activity.
Journal of Mammalogy 84(1): 26-36.

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a key species in Mediterranean ecosystems and is ecologically plastic. However, ecological responses of rabbits to different habitats are poorly understood. We present data on abundance, distribution, activity, and survival in 3 neighboring habitats in southwestern Spain differing in refuge and forage availability. Scrubland presents dense cover but low forage abundance: grassland offers little protective vegetation but high food availability; the ecotone provides intermediate levels of both resources. Rabbits reached the highest abundance in ecotone, whereas low food and refuge availability seemed to limit their abundance in scrubland and grassland, respectively. In scrubland, rabbits were dispersed among the cover. In grassland, rabbits were linked to aggregated burrows. In ecotone, rabbits dug burrows in the bordering bushes that abutted grassy feeding pasture. Predation by raptors was low in scrubland, and mortality due to mammalian carnivores was higher in spite of more diurnal rabbit activity. Carnivore predation also caused higher mortality in grassland, where rabbits were more nocturnal. In ecotone, the effect of both mammalian carnivores and raptors on rabbits was similar. Mortality by disease seemed to be linked to level of rabbit aggregation.

Lombardi_et_al_2003_Habitat_related_differences_in_rabbit.pdf

Long, J. R., Qiu, X. P., Zeng, F. T., Tang, L. M., and Zhang, Y. P. 2003.
Origin of rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in China: evidence from mitochondrial DNA control region sequence analysis.
Animal Genetics 34: 82-87.

A fragment of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region (_700 bp) was sequenced in 104 individuals from 20 breeds (three Chinese domestic breeds, five recently derived breeds and 12 introduced breeds) of domestic rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus. Nineteen sites were polymorphic, with 18 transitions and one insertion ? deletion, and eight haplotypes (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8) were identified. Haplotype A1 was the most common and occurred in 89 individuals. In the 25 Chinese rabbits, only haplotype A1 was observed, while four haplotypes (A1, A3, A5 and A6) were found in 26 recently derived individuals. Haplotype A2 was shared by seven individuals among three introduced strains. The other six haplotypes accounted for 0.96–1.92% of the animals. Combined with the published sequences of European rabbits, a reduced median-joining network was constructed. The Chinese rabbit mtDNAs were scattered into two clusters of European rabbits. These results suggest that the (so-called) Chinese rabbits were introduced from Europe. Genetic diversity in Chinese rabbits was very low.

Long_et_al_2003_Origin_of_rabbit_in_China_from_DNA_analysis.pdf