The impact of RHDV-K5 on rabbit populations in Australia: an evaluation of citizen science surveys to monitor rabbit abundance

Peter Elsworth and colleagues have just published “The impact of RHDV-K5 on rabbit populations in Australia: an evaluation of citizen science surveys to monitor rabbit abundance” in Scientific Reports. They established a citizen science program to complement the release of a new variant of the rabbit biological control agent, rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus, known colloquially as K5, across Australia. They then evaluated the impact of K5 on the national rabbit population and compared citizen science and professionally-collected spotlight count data. Almost all citizen science sites indicated a decrease in rabbit abundance following the release of K5 and there was an average monthly reduction of 34% one month after the release. No such declines were observed at the professionally monitored sites. The citizen science data submissions may have been unconsciously biased or the number of professional sites may have been insufficient to detect a change. Citizen participation also declined by 56% over the post-release period. Future programs should use blinded trials to check for unconscious bias and consider how the interest of the participants can be maintained throughout the program.

Cox, T.E., Ramsey, D.S.L., Sawyers, E., Campbell, S., Matthews, J. and Elsworth, P. 2019. The impact of RHDV-K5 on rabbit populations in Australia: an evaluation of citizen science surveys to monitor rabbit abundance. Scientific Reports 9(1): 15229.