Autumn field work
The team completed their quarterly field sampling last week with the support of ACT Parks rangers.
The team completed their quarterly field sampling last week with the support of ACT Parks rangers.
A glorious but cold evening. The grass is still quite long following the rains in early 2021, which makes it hard to spot the rabbits. Rabbit numbers remain very low (only 1 rabbit all night!), similar to the numbers seen over the Summer 2021 and Spring 2020 monitoring nights. A brilliant example of what sustained long-term integrated rabbit control can achieve.
This long-term field monitoring is important to look at trends in rabbit populations over time and to determine which caliciviruses have been through this population and when. Here is some of the previous work that this monitoring site has supported:
- Changes in virus transmission dynamics following the emergence of RHDV2 shed light on its competitive advantage over previously circulating variants
- Comparative analysis of RNA virome composition in rabbits and associated ectoparasites
- Emerging RHDV2 suppresses the impact of endemic and novel strains of RHDV on wild rabbit populations
- The impact of RHDV-K5 on rabbit populations in Australia: an evaluation of citizen science surveys to monitor rabbit abundance
- The Australian National Rabbit Database: 50 yr of population monitoring of an invasive species
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