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Even the rabbits are having a tough time:

Rabbit Virus

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Always a photo subject that has been taken for granted due to their abundance, now they are in danger.

Joe

Scary what we take for granted Joe.

This is horrible news for me, as I really love all of the Lagomorphs that are native to North America, and the Cottontails are one of my favorites, along with the Pika. In fact, this bothers me much more than the "other" virus, because it could wipe out a much higher percentage of the population, and put the very existence of the species in jeopardy.  

I have seen a lot of news articles about this on the internet, but none of them actually say what species are being affected.  They just say "rabbits" or "cottontail rabbits", which is rather frustrating because there are several different species of Cottontails whose distribution overlaps.   I would prefer to have more accurate, species-specific information.  

I have looked for more detailed info about this, but come up empty.  If anyone can suggest a source for more scientific information on this "rabbit virus", I would really appreciate it.

Here’s a link to more specific info:

More Specific Info

On the following page, click on “popular searches” on the left hand side and then choose the option that is applicable:

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I suggest following the links in the initial post and links within those links for more info, as some lead to PDF’s and I don’t know how to link to them.

Joe

Sometimes we can create problems that lead to other problems. Rabbits were introduced to Australia and soon flourished:

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments ... introduced

Then, a virus was introduced to control the problem:

https://jvi.asm.org/content/89/23/12217

Joe

Rabbits are indeed a big problem in Australia and several viruses have been introduced to try to control numbers, Myxomatosis many years ago, then RHDV1 and Calici virus more recently. Myxomatosis caused numbers to crash by 95%, but the rabbits came back - same with all the others more or less. The surviving rabbits breed up relatively quickly as the surviving rabbits have better resistance to the disease and pass that on. May be a different story with species that are under stress for one reason or another of course.

Santa Fe Joe,

Thank you for the link you provided.  It had the information I had been searching for.  Appreciate it.