The Australian National Rabbit Database: 50 yr of population monitoring of an invasive species

Abstract

With ongoing introductions into Australia since the 1700s, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has become one of the most widely distributed and abundant vertebrate pests, adversely impacting Australia's biodiversity and agroeconomy. To understand the population and range dynamics of the species and its impacts better, occurrence and abundance data have been collected by researchers and citizens from sites covering a broad spectrum of climatic and environmental conditions in Australia. The lack of a common and accessible repository for these data has, however, limited their use in determining important spatiotemporal drivers of the structure and dynamics of the geographical range of rabbits in Australia. To meet this need, we created the Australian National Rabbit Database, which combines more than 50 yr of historical and contemporary survey data collected from throughout the range of the species in Australia. The survey data, obtained from a suite of complementary monitoring methods, were combined with high‐resolution weather, climate, and environmental information, and an assessment of data quality. The database provides records of rabbit occurrence (689,265 records) and abundance (51,241 records, >120 distinct sites) suitable for identifying the spatiotemporal drivers of the rabbit's distribution and for determining spatial patterns of variation in its key life‐history traits, including maximum rates of population growth. Because all data are georeferenced and date stamped, they can be coupled with information from other databases and spatial layers to explore the potential effects of rabbit occurrence and abundance on Australia's native wildlife and agricultural production. The Australian National Rabbit Database is an important tool for understanding and managing the European rabbit in its invasive range and its effects on native biodiversity and agricultural production. It also provides a valuable resource for addressing questions related to the biology, success, and impacts of invasive species more generally. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.

Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists

“…We used a two-phased analytical approach to select the best model (e.g., Wadley, Austin, & Fordham, 2014). We did this preliminary analysis only with the expert occurrence data, which is more precise and reliable (Roy-Dufresne, Lurgi, et al, 2019;Roy-Dufresne, Saltré, et al, 2019) and, therefore, provides a better reflection of the pattern of occurrence for the focal species. We ranked the models using the Akaike's information criterion corrected for small sample size (AIC c ) and assessed their probability relatively to the entire set of candidate models using the AIC c weights (wAIC c ) and their corresponding percentage of TA B L E 1 Name, description, and range of value of selected covariates to describe the distribution of the rabbits in Australia deviance explained (Burnham & Anderson, 2010).…”

“…In step 2, we generated a separate candidate model set with all potential combinations of covariates from the best-ranked models (wAICc = 1) in step 1. We did this preliminary analysis only with the expert occurrence data, which is more precise and reliable (Roy-Dufresne, Lurgi, et al, 2019;Roy-Dufresne, Saltré, et al, 2019) and, therefore, provides a better reflection of the pattern of occurrence for the focal species.…”

“…The species was introduced into the country in 1788 and is listed as a Key Threatening Process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act since 1999 due to competition with the native fauna and flora and overgrazing activities (West, 2008). Over the last 50 years, rabbit occurrence and abundance have been monitored by expert scientists under various governmental and local programs across the country (Roy-Dufresne, Lurgi, et al, 2019;Roy-Dufresne, Saltré, et al, 2019).…”

“…Australia, 2016). These records were supplemented using occurrence data from the national rabbit database (Roy-Dufresne, Lurgi, et al, 2019;Roy-Dufresne, Saltré, et al, 2019) (total: 3,409 pts). Citizen occurrences were obtained from the Feral Scan surveillance program on 05-21-2015(Feral Scan Data, 2016total: 1,842 pts).…”

“…E.R.D. drafted the manuscript in consultation with all authors.DATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N TA digital version of the final ensemble model is provided on FigshareDigitial Repository(Roy-Dufresne, Lurgi, et al, 2019;Roy-Dufresne, Saltré, et al, 2019).…”