The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Ukraine: 140 years from introduction to decline

Abstract

An analysis of the history of introduction, population growth and extinction of the European rabbit populations in Ukraine is presented. The history of the initial and subsequent introductions of the species, which were initiated in the northern Black Sea region about 140 years ago, is considered in detail. The centres of introductions were the balka systems near Kherson and the slopes of seaside estuaries near Odesa. The earliest dates of introductions are 1882 and 1894 in the Kherson region and 1898 and 1900 in Odesa region, later in other regions. There are contradictions in determining the status of introduced animals as to whether they were domestic or wild rabbits. The details of the earliest introductions and the subsequent fate of populations by region are considered: for Odesa, Ternopil, Poltava, and Mykolaiv oblasts, and for the Crimea. Attempts to describe the general range of the European rabbit in Ukraine are ana-lysed, including reviews of 1973 and 1994. The cadastre of recent (1960–1990) and modern (since 2000) finds of the species in Ukraine was compiled. In the cadastre, the data is summarized for seven regions: Odesa Oblast (14 locations), Mykolaiv Oblast (1), Kherson Oblast (4), Zaporizhia Oblast (2), Crimea (8), other regions of Right-bank Ukraine (3), other regions of Left-bank Ukraine (3). All such data are marked on a map. The cadastre includes also collection materials; NMNH (Kyiv) houses 81 specimens, including 27 specimens of the wild form from Odesa, 5 from Kherson Oblast, and 49 from Crimea. Four aspects of the European rabbit’s occurrence in Ukraine are discussed, particularly the limits of species range, type habitats, population decline in the 1980s–1990s, and factors that impacted the extinction of populations. Among the latter, evidence is given in favour of three factors: epizootics, overhunting, and climate change; each of them is an important factor in the existence and disappearance of a species. Finally, information on modern remnants of former colonies, which actually survived only thanks to artificial support, is considered: the outskirts of Odesa, Mezhyhiria, and some other regions with local introductions within individual hunting farms mainly in the forest-steppe zone. The prospects for the further existence of the species that has gone through a difficult path from being a successfully introduced species to a species that has almost completely disappeared are considered.