Dangers to, from wild rabbits draw world scientists to Turlock

Rabbit experts from around the world converged on Turlock this week for the quadrennial World Lagomorph Conference, drawn to the San Joaquin Valley by a native endangered species and the university scientists who study it.

About 100 specialists of the World Lagomorph Society from 23 countries signed in and picked up bags sporting the concentric bunnies logo at California State University, Stanislaus, on Monday night. Tuesday, the work began, taking notes through 51 presentations on wild rabbits, hares and pikas over three days, winding up with a tour of Yosemite National Park on Friday.

Stan State biology professor and director of the university’s Endangered Species Recovery Program Patrick Kelly volunteered the Turlock locale, said Paulo Alves, president of the World Lagomorph Society. “The hook was because of the riparian brush rabbit, in terms of the work Patrick has done with this rabbit,” said Alves, who hails from Portugal.

This area is rabbit research central. “Ten percent of the species live within a half day’s drive of this campus,” Kelly said.

Riparian brush rabbits, a cottontail found only in the San Joaquin Valley, have lost ground, literally, to subdivisions and almond orchards. Efforts to save the species are ongoing in cooperation with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at the San Joaquin Wildlife Refuge and adjacent Dos Rios habitat restoration project.

Saving lagomorphs, the order of mammal that includes rabbits, hares and pikas, besides the adorable factor, matters as part of the larger ecosystem, Alves said. “The European rabbit in its native range is not doing well, and it is the main food source for the Iberian lynx. So how the rabbit goes, so goes the lynx.”

In China, Weidong Li spotted the first Ili pika seen in 20 years in 2014. “It ran across my foot,” Li said through a translator. The tiny fur balls, thought to have inspired the Pokémon Pikachu, now number fewer than 1,000 – more endangered than pandas. Of China’s 25 pika species, three are endangered, he said.

Rabbits are among the few species that exist in the wild, as pets, as lab animals and farmed for food, pointed out Antonio Lavazza of Italy. Lavazza researches rabbit diseases, primarily two – myxomatosis and hemorrhagic disease – which are as devastating as they sound to rabbit populations.

Also studying rabbit diseases, but in France, Jean-Sebastien Guitton said he is studying the decline of the mountain hare. Fellow French researcher Jerome Letty said climate change appears to be the culprit.

Tuesday morning’s lectures were devoted to the effect of climate change on lagomorphs around the globe.

“I really want to focus on climate change. Here in California, where we’re so dependent on the snowpack – we can’t forget about it,” Kelly said as he finished up last minute details before the conference began.

Changing weather has forced wildlife to higher elevations or farther north but also poses immediate threats. The white snowshoe hare, for example, invisible in its white fluff through a normal winter, has no camouflage against the rocks and dirt without snow, Kelly said, “The predators have a field day.”

While much of the work being done focuses on having too few rabbits, in Australia the problem is too many. In what one researcher called a love-hate rabbit relationship, management of overpopulations also has a spot on the program.

“Just because we love working with animals doesn’t mean we don’t realize they can be a problem,” Kelly said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Rabbit art will take center stage Tuesday evening, featured alongside local brews and wines. The university’s Art Space on Main exhibit of rabbit artwork, created by biology students in honor of the conference, will provide the backdrop for the international reception.

Lagomorph behavior, population trends and diseases have a spot on the program, as does advances in tracking tiny pygmies and pikas. Genetic scientists will continue the ongoing debate over organization of the order, which details are distinct enough to rate a separate genus or species – folks Kelly divides into “the lumpers and the splitters.”

The conference gives them a chance to argue the details in person. “It’s good to have arguments in science,” he said. “Any scientist worth his or her salt shouldn’t have a problem with being proven wrong.”

This story was originally published July 12, 2016 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Dangers to, from wild rabbits draw world scientists to Turlock."