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Ecology, management and conservation in natural and modified habitats
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Plasticity in daily activity patterns of a key prey species in the Iberian Peninsula to reduce predation risk

Esther Descalzo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0809-4422 A C , Jorge Tobajas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8329-8265 A , Rafael Villafuerte B , Rafael Mateo A and Pablo Ferreras https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1116-6706 A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC), CSIC-UCLM-JCCM, Ronda de Toledo no. 12, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain.

B Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (IESA-CSIC), C/ Campo Santo de los Mártires, 7, 14004 Córdoba, Spain.

C Corresponding author. Email: Esther.Descalzo@uclm.es

Wildlife Research - https://doi.org/10.1071/WR20156
Submitted: 7 September 2020  Accepted: 23 January 2021   Published online: 9 April 2021

Abstract

Context: Some prey species can shift their daily activity patterns to reduce the risk of encountering predators, and, in turn, predators develop strategies to increase their chances of meeting prey. European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a key species in Iberian Mediterranean ecosystems. It is the main prey for many vertebrate predators. It is also a game species and is often the target of management measures such as translocations.

Aims: To test whether rabbits adjust their activity patterns in response to differing predation regimes in a management context.

Methods: Rabbits were translocated from a donor area, with a high rabbit density, to a release area in central Spain, with a semi-permeable fenced plot and an unfenced plot, which had no rabbits before the translocation. We estimated daily activity patterns and relative abundance index (RAI) for mesocarnivores and rabbits by using camera-traps, and calculated Jacobs selection index (JSI) to classify each species in a diel period. Additionally, we calculated the activity overlap between prey and mesocarnivores in the different areas.

Key results: Rabbits were nocturnal in the donor area, where only two mesocarnivore species were detected, red fox (Vulpes vulpes, with a high RAI) and Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon, with a low RAI). However, in the unfenced area, where five mesocarnivore species were present, rabbits showed a crepuscular trend with two activity peaks, around sunrise and around sunset. In contrast, rabbits showed a nocturnal activity in the fenced plot, where four mesocarnivore species were detected but where only the Egyptian mongoose (strictly diurnal) had a high RAI value.

Conclusions and implications: The results suggest that rabbits in the fenced plot adapted their activity to avoid the diurnal mongooses. Conversely, rabbits in unfenced areas showed a trend towards day/twilight activity patterns as an adaptation to a diverse community of mesocarnivores. Rabbits can adapt their daily activity patterns to reduce predation risk depending on the pressure exerted by different predator species, with conservation and management implications. These adaptations would allow higher success of rabbit translocations despite the risk of predation by carnivores and could help in the management design of future translocations of this key species.

Keywords: European rabbits, predator–prey relationship, red fox, Egyptian mongoose, adaptive behaviour.


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