About Population Genetics of the Riverine Rabbit

The Critically Endangered riverine rabbit is regarded as one of Africa’s most endangered mammals, threatened predominantly by habitat transformation across the Karoo, resulting in a limited geographical distribution and seemingly small population size. Prof. Conrad Matthee and the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Drylands Conservation Programme have been working on riverine rabbit conservation for over 20 years.

Our current aim is to investigate the geographic distribution of the species, and to gather genetic material to investigate genetic connectivity between individuals occurring in different geographic regions. Due to the elusive nature of the species we are exploring the use of eDNA from scat samples as a source of genetic material. We will use this material in population genetic analyses, to better understand genetic connectivity of subpopulations, genetic diversity of the species, and of the subpopulations, and potentially also population size estimation. All of these insights will help to inform and guide the conservation management of the species. 

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