A university researcher is looking to study why white-tailed jackrabbit populations are booming in Edmonton despite a sharp decline elsewhere. He said the jackrabbits in Edmonton have become well-adapted to living alongside humans. Looking into jackrabbit populations that date back to the early 1990s, he and his colleagues have found populations are about 80 times denser compared to rural rabbits. Previous research from 2016 suggests there were around 3,000 jackrabbits in Edmonton, Visscher said, but it seems the population increases year over year. Darcy Visscher, associate professor of biology at the King's University in Edmonton, is interested to see how jackrabbit behaviours change in more natural areas versus densely-populated residential areas.
