The Mysterious Disappearance of Yellowstone's Rabbits
The Wildlife Conservation Society has recently completed a study concluding that jack rabbits have quietly disappeared from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem encompases riparian and mountainous terrain in and around Yellowstone National Park. It extends beyond the official boundaries of Yellowstone and includes the nearby Grand Teton National Park as well.
The reason for the jack rabbits' disappearance is not known, though some possible causes of their disappearance include disease, harsh weather conditions, or predation. But since the rabbit population crashed without notice, there is no data to clarify what caused their disappearance. The last confirmed sighting of a jack rabbit within Yellowstone National Park was in 1991. Sightings outside of the park boundaries are equally rare. Since 1978, there have been only three sightings in the nearby Grand Teton National Park.
Since jack rabbits disappeared from the region without detection until now, scientists are uncertain what effects their absence has had. Jack rabbits are thought to have filled an important role within the ecosystem's food web. In their absence, predators such as coyotes and recently introduced wolves must turn to other sources to obtain their nourishment. This means there may be added pressure on juvenile elk, deer, moose, and pronghorn as predators look to alternatives to jack rabbit prey.
The Wildlife Conservation Society study was lead by Dr. Joel Berger, a professor at the University of Montana. The findings of Berger's team are published in the latest issue of Oryx.
Find out more:
- Down the Rabbit Hole (Wildlife Conservation Society)
- Yellowstone's Rabbits Have Vanished, Study Says (EurekAlert)
- Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Greater Yellowstone Coallition)
Photo © Joel Berger / Wildlife Conservation Society. Jack rabbits like these have mysteriously vanished from Yellowstone, a Wildlife Conservation Society study says.
Comments
I am appalled that noone has noticed this in 30 years, even longer! Shouldn’t this have been part of the wolf reintroduction program by someone? Now the wolves are being killed again because they had to find a new food source! Can a vaccinated group be reintroduced to see if we can evolve a prey species resistant to myxomatosis and VHD and see if 20/20 hindsight might fix a possible cause of erradication that we cannot now evaluate? There are areas west of Yellowstone that have to vaccinate their domestic rabbits like in Europe where myxi and VHD are great problems and they are having loss of their Brown Hare as well occurring. Should these be checked before too late? Maybe we can in time increase immunity to these man-made diseases to cure our ignorance in Australia with introduction of species (non-native to naieve) that cause mega problems, and save a species here ( or maybe several) while being able to evaluate how this HAS already affected things?
a jack rabbit would be a keystone species. it affects all predators of the animal and so on….so the only way to save all the populations is to take a few of each species i male and female and reproduce and slowly release them into the wild to keep the animal from going extinct!!!!!