One was the naturalist Ronald Lockley, who maintained a number of large enclosures for wild rabbit colonies, with observation facilities, in Orielton, Pembrokeshire. Much of the modern research into wild rabbit behaviour was carried out in the 1960s by two research centres. Unlike the related hares ( Lepus spp.), rabbits are altricial, the young being born blind and furless, in a fur-lined nest in the warren, and they are totally dependent upon their mothers. The European rabbit is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. It is known as an invasive species because it has been introduced to countries on all continents with the exception of Antarctica, and has caused many problems within the environment and ecosystems in particular, European rabbits in Australia have had a devastating impact, due in part to the lack of natural predators there. Its decline in its native range due to myxomatosis, rabbit hemorrhagic disease, overhunting and habitat loss has caused the decline of the Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus) and Spanish imperial eagle ( Aquila adalberti). It has been widely introduced elsewhere, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity. The European rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus) or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula ( Spain, Portugal and Andorra), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa.
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