The impact of RHDV-K5 on rabbit populations in Australia: an evaluation of citizen science surveys to monitor rabbit abundance.

ABSTRACT: The increasing popularity of citizen science in ecological research has created opportunities for data collection from large teams of observers that are widely dispersed. We established a citizen science program to complement the release of a new variant of the rabbit biological control agent, rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), known colloquially as K5, across Australia. We evaluated the impact of K5 on the national rabbit population and compared citizen science and professionally-collected spotlight count data. Of the citizen science sites (n = 219), 93% indicated a decrease in rabbit abundance following the release of K5. The overall finite monthly growth rate in rabbit abundance was estimated as 0.66 (95%CI, 0.26, 1.03), averaging a monthly reduction of 34% at the citizen science

SUBMITTER: Cox TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6811621 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature