Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits

Abstract Accurate methods for age determination are critical to the knowledge of wildlife populations' age structure and, therefore, to their successful management. The reliability of age estimation may have profound economic and ecological consequences on the management of the European wild ra...

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Autores principales:	Patricia H. Vaquerizas, Simone Santoro, Miguel Delibes-Mateos, Francisca Castro, Rafael Villafuerte
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/80b0cbce336c455982941f20d1e33d72
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:80b0cbce336c455982941f20d1e33d722021-12-02T16:45:39ZKeeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits10.1038/s41598-021-88087-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/80b0cbce336c455982941f20d1e33d722021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88087-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Accurate methods for age determination are critical to the knowledge of wildlife populations' age structure and, therefore, to their successful management. The reliability of age estimation may have profound economic and ecological consequences on the management of the European wild rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, in its native and introduced range, where it is a keystone species and a major pest, respectively. As in other mammal species, European rabbits' age is often estimated using the Gompertz relationship between age and lens' weight. The growth rate formula has been developed based on data collected from European rabbits introduced in Australia, where a single subspecies (O. cuniculus cuniculus, Occ) is present. However, this curve has never been validated in the species native range, the Iberian Peninsula, where two subspecies (Occ, and O. c. algirus, Oca) coexist naturally. In this study, we tested the relationship between age and lens' weight using 173 Occ and 112 Oca wild rabbits that were surveyed in two experimental facilities in Spain. Our findings show that, in the native range, the published growth curve formula fits well Occ but not Oca data. Therefore, we recommend using the formula reported in this study to estimate the age of Oca (Lens dry weight = 240 × 10(−64.9/(Age+32))). This study supports Oca rabbits' distinctiveness revealed by previous studies, which suggests that management interventions should be applied to protect this subspecies whose distribution range is very narrow and whose populations seem to be declining. More broadly, our findings point to the importance of testing the suitability of growth curves defined for other species with different genetic forms as occurs in the European wild rabbit case.Patricia H. VaquerizasSimone SantoroMiguel Delibes-MateosFrancisca CastroRafael VillafuerteNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Patricia H. Vaquerizas Simone Santoro Miguel Delibes-Mateos Francisca Castro Rafael Villafuerte Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits
description	Abstract Accurate methods for age determination are critical to the knowledge of wildlife populations' age structure and, therefore, to their successful management. The reliability of age estimation may have profound economic and ecological consequences on the management of the European wild rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, in its native and introduced range, where it is a keystone species and a major pest, respectively. As in other mammal species, European rabbits' age is often estimated using the Gompertz relationship between age and lens' weight. The growth rate formula has been developed based on data collected from European rabbits introduced in Australia, where a single subspecies (O. cuniculus cuniculus, Occ) is present. However, this curve has never been validated in the species native range, the Iberian Peninsula, where two subspecies (Occ, and O. c. algirus, Oca) coexist naturally. In this study, we tested the relationship between age and lens' weight using 173 Occ and 112 Oca wild rabbits that were surveyed in two experimental facilities in Spain. Our findings show that, in the native range, the published growth curve formula fits well Occ but not Oca data. Therefore, we recommend using the formula reported in this study to estimate the age of Oca (Lens dry weight = 240 × 10(−64.9/(Age+32))). This study supports Oca rabbits' distinctiveness revealed by previous studies, which suggests that management interventions should be applied to protect this subspecies whose distribution range is very narrow and whose populations seem to be declining. More broadly, our findings point to the importance of testing the suitability of growth curves defined for other species with different genetic forms as occurs in the European wild rabbit case.
format	article
author	Patricia H. Vaquerizas Simone Santoro Miguel Delibes-Mateos Francisca Castro Rafael Villafuerte
author_facet	Patricia H. Vaquerizas Simone Santoro Miguel Delibes-Mateos Francisca Castro Rafael Villafuerte
author_sort	Patricia H. Vaquerizas
title	Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits
title_short	Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits
title_full	Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits
title_fullStr	Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits
title_full_unstemmed	Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits
title_sort	keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for european wild rabbits
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/80b0cbce336c455982941f20d1e33d72
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Keeping an eye on the use of eye-lens weight as a universal indicator of age for European wild rabbits

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