Changes in Red fox numbers in eastern Germany after rabies vaccination

Abstract

Red Fox Vulpes vulpes population growth before and after rabies vaccination was investigated using population viability analysis. I constructed life tables to assess mortality rates using age distribution and reproductive parameters from published studies mainly based on hunting bags and road. kills. Models based on these mortality estimates together with estimates of reproduction revealed temporarily increasing growth rates in fox populations immediately after rabies vaccination. Less than ten years after rabies eradication growth rates had decreased again. Like these models bag statistics and mapping of breeding dens also confirm that populations probably stabilized at a higher level in the end of the 1990s. For the eastern German Raccoon dog Nyctereutes procyonoides populations the model shows high growth rates like in a fox population shortly after rabies vaccination. The validity of model estimates depending on the certainty of parameters is discussed.