A new study by Wildlife Conservation Society chronicles the disappearance of white-tailed jack rabbits from the Yellowstone ecosystem. The scary part is that the bunnies have disappeared from Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks - those treasures set aside to "preserve, protect, and share natural heritage legacies" - with few people even noticing! Historical records for over 130 years show that the jack rabbits were abundant (and apparently reproducing like rabbits). The last confirmed sighting in Yellowstone was 1991.
The disappearance remains a mystery. "It could be disease, extreme weather, predation, or other factors," according to the study's lead author Dr. Joel Berger, a Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist and professor at the University of Montana. "Since the rabbits blipped off without knowledge, there has simply been no way to get at the underlying cause." The study was published in the journal Oryx.
Berger believes the absence of jack rabbits, historically an important prey species in the ecosystem, may lead coyotes to rely on juvenile elk, pronghorn, and other ungulates for food. Predators elsewhere tend to prey more heavily on livestock when rabbit densities drop. But without baseline data on rabbit numbers in Greater Yellowstone, it is difficult to assess the impacts on predators such as grey wolves, which were reintroduced in 1995.
Berger and others believe that land managers should reintroduce jack rabbit populations into Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. I just emailed the parks urging them to do so. I urge you to do the same.
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Seems disturbingly like the old saying about a tree falling in a forest - If a bunny disappears from the forest and no one is around to hear it, will it make any noise? Makes me shudder to think how many of these issues have not been caught or noticed, ever. So perhaps I can concede that a shifted baseline is better than no baseline at all, b/c if it is shifting at least we know someone is paying attention.
There is actually more to this cautionary tale, and not necessarily fitting into this storyline. It may be prudent to hold those phone calls for now, since it seems the jackrabbits may not actually be locally extinct after all!
Its funny how many of us accepted the conclusions of the paper and ran with the "cautionary tale" perhaps because it fits so nicely with our conservation paradigms (sorry - I almost said frames there!) - yet all Berger (and the rest of us) had to do was to ask ordinary people who live in the area if they'd seen the jackrabbits! How often, and why, do we forget that?