ABSTRACT
The wild rabbit, originally confined to the countries bordering the western Mediterranean sea, has spread over much of Europe and has been introduced to two continents, Australia and South America, as well as many islands ranging from the tropics to the subantarctic. Under most climatic conditions, the rabbit has a breeding season which extends from late autumn to early summer. Populations build up during the breeding season and decline sharply in the following 2 months. Population can increase rapidly and during drought can experience spectacular declines. Most of the estimates were attempts at total enumeration of the populations by trapping and/or afternoon observation of marked rabbits. Many young rabbits were caught in September and October, and as the probability of capture changes markedly with age, this violates the assumption of equal catch-ability inherent in the calculations.
