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Drought and rabbit losses push Doñana lynx toward kite nests

Long-term observations in Spain’s Doñana show lynx increasingly preying on black-kite nests when rabbit disease and drought constrained food. Some dry years saw heavy losses of nearly fledged chicks, with consequences for later breeding. Wet years with scarce rabbits produced a different response, pointing to interacting pressures rather than one universal trigger.

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In an AI-generated Doñana scene, an Iberian lynx climbs a slanted tree toward a black-kite nest containing two unharmed chicks.

Competitors become prey

Lynx in Spain’s Doñana preyed more frequently on black-kite nests when drought combined with rabbit losses. Long-term observations document a shift between two predators that compete for the same principal prey.[1], [2]

The peer-reviewed study followed kite breeding across roughly three decades in a ten-square-kilometre area, covering 1,624 nests. From 1993 through 2012, lynx predation affected 13 of 904 nests. A rabbit disease outbreak in 2013 reduced rabbit numbers by more than seventy per cent. Drought also reduced waterbirds, an alternative food, changing the wider menu available to predators.[1]

Dry years change the outcome

In some drought years, lynx took up to forty-six per cent of nearly fledged kite chicks. Rabbit scarcity in wet years did not produce the same nest-predation response. The contrast is central: losing the shared prey alone did not explain the pattern. Rabbit remains under nests suggested that lynx might also target food competitors, but the observational evidence did not experimentally establish that motive.[1]

Breeding consequences outlast the attack

Affected kites had lower lifetime reproductive success. Nest predation was also followed by increased emigration and territory vacancy in the next breeding season, extending the consequences beyond the chicks lost in one year. Lower kite abundance was associated with more little owls. These are findings from one monitored ecosystem; they do not establish that drought will rearrange predator relationships identically elsewhere.[1]

References

  1. News sourceNatureDrought and rabbit loss redirected lynx predation toward kite nests↩1↩2↩3↩4
  2. News sourceEl PaísLynx prey on black-kite nests in Doñana↩
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