Hunting, habitat loss and mostly disease have reduced rabbit numbers in the two neighbouring countries to five percent of population estimates 50 years ago, a report commissioned by the groups found.

"Whereas the rabbit is seen as a pest in countries where it has been introduced, it is the keystone of the Mediterranean ecosystem in Spain and Portugal," wrote the report's author, Dan Ward, a consultant for conservation group SOS Lynx, one of the six groups that backed the study.

There are less than 100 adult Iberian lynx, and only around 150 Iberian imperial eagle, left in Portugal and Spain, according to the report.

Environmentalists fear the leopard-spotted lynx, which lives in scrub forest and grassland and grows to about one metre (three feet) long, could become the first big cat species to die out since the sabre-tootheed tiger.

Measures proposed by the report include putting rabbits on the IUCN Red List, the World Conservation Unions list of species most at risk of global extinction, and boosting support for rabbit conservation projects.

Existing projects lack sufficient political and financial support, and are not widepread or coordinated enough, the report titled "Reversing Rabbit Decline" said.

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