After the European Rabbit Was Introduced into Australia in 1859

After the European rabbit was introduced into Australia in 1859, it quickly became a devastating invasive species, causing extinction or decline of many native animals and plants, major damage to crops, and soil erosion.To control the exponential growth of the population (which had grown from 24 animals to an estimated 600 million), biologists infected rabbits with the myxoma virus in 1950.In the first years after introduction of the virus, up to 99 percent of infected rabbits died.Over later years, however, both the average life span of infected rabbits and the percentage of rabbits surviving infection increased.How can these changes be explained?

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Natural selection favored the survival o...

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