The humble rabbit that we find in any of our mountains has, historically, been the great protagonist and the fundamental pillar of the Iberian ecosystems. Jewels of our fauna such as the Iberian lynx or the imperial eagle depend on it, and until now we all thought that the councils of the peninsula belonged to a single species, the European rabbit.
A new paradigm. However, science has just turned our taxonomic tree upside down, since a new and comprehensive study published in the magazine Biological Conservation and led by IESA-CSIC researchers has confirmed what genetics had been hinting at for some time: two different species of rabbits coexist on the Iberian Peninsula.
A change. The debate is not entirely new, since previous work had already documented differences between rabbits from the east and north of the peninsula and those from the southwest, which also extend across northern Africa. Until today, these differences were resolved by dividing the rabbits in two subspecies: Oryctolagus cuniculus cuniculus and Oryctolagus cuniculus algirus.
But now science has said that this is not the case, and it is accompanied by a large amount of evidence from different areas that go beyond DNA itself. Here researchers have synthesized definitive evidence in genetics, morphology, ecology, reproduction, parasitology and even the microbiome of these animals. And the conclusion is that the differences are so profound that the southwest Iberian lineage must be elevated to the category of an independent species, officially being called the Iberian rabbit.
What remains For its part, the lineage from the east and north of the peninsula, and its populations introduced from the rest of the world, such as in Australia, will maintain the classic name of European rabbit.
Because? The question we can ask ourselves in light of this study is: How is it possible that two animals so similar to the naked eye are different species? The answer lies in the ice, since the genetic differences between both lineages are estimated at about two million years.
And during the Pleistocene ice ages, the original populations of rabbits were isolated in different “climate refuges” in southern Europe. One group was confined to the Ebro valley area, while the other survived in the vicinity of the Gulf of Cádiz. This geographic isolation sustained for millennia forced different evolutionary paths and today the evidence even points to incipient speciation, with studies reporting chromosomal incompatibilities when both lineages intersect in the areas where they currently coincide.
Its consequences. This change in status is not a mere academic whim or a laboratory technicality, since it has consequences. By being recognized as a unique species, exclusive to the Iberian Peninsula (and part of North Africa), they completely change the rules of the game for conservation.
For example, the areas where the threatened Iberian lynx lives coincide geographically, for the most part, with the distribution area of this new species in decline. That is why saving the Iberian rabbit is, literally, saving the lynx.
Images | David Atkins
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