no rabbits

[jamo]

hi guys,my fathers got a small farm of about 70 acres, a lot of the surrounding land has rabbits but theres none on his land. we were talking the other day and he said up until about 20 years ago it was alive with them. now there are a lot of foxes on the land my guess is there is at least a dozen. and the odd badger in the woods. the only livestock on the farm are about 25 cattle,just wondering if anyone has any ideas why the land is devoid of rabbits. is it too many natural predators? any help would be grateful. and im thinking of asking some of my mates with ferretts if they could nett me some to introduce to the farm. cheers jamie.

[jax13]

your going to introduce a pest on purpose?????

i wish i had your land and the permission to turn it into a shooting resort!

you may have issues with new bunnies just running off and going to other warrens on neighbouring land as there won't be many on there for a reason if it hasn't been shot before.

if you have the space, time, money to do it make yourself a rabbit pen. dig in about a meter or two and lay paving slabs or even a thin spread of concrete in an area as big as you can 25x10 metres would be a good size to start with (i didn't say it'd be cheap!). then double or treble thickness chicken wire round the sides of the hole and fence up to about 3 1/2 feet high above ground. fill the hole back in and mound it up in the middle and introduce captured bunnies into it. you can use it as a breeding pen if there are no issues on the land with you being ridden with them. when your population gets up capture some and release them or make a gate in the fence to let some out then close it again.

its gonna be a lot of work but (if its legal to do it??) you would have a constant supply of bunnies going onto your land and no predators to remove them before you! if you think long term you could have a very good shoot that could make you a couple of bob!

[bullbarrel]

Isn't it illegal to release vermin once its caught (such as squirrels or foxes).

I'd talk to the surrounding farmers and see if you can shoot on their land.

Or get a .243 and shoot the foxes. The bunnies might come back.

[jax13]

Isn't it illegal to release vermin once its caught (such as squirrels or foxes).

that was what i thought. i remembered the thread about the old guy who got prosecuted for releasing a squirrel he caged in his garden into a park.

there might be different regulations on it depending on circumstance but i really couldn't say.

[some bloke]

Ask dad to go with you to have a word with his neighbours. Most farmers would rather have a local there doing the job if they can get one willing.

[jamo]

ok thanks guys. good advice,

[Davey K]

Anybody know if rabbits prefer different soil types for digging in, I live around predominantly clay soil fields and you don't see rabbits - a bit further down the road where the soil is quite sandy, there's loads of them

makes sense I suppose, spare yourself the effort of a hard dig!

anyone know if this is true?

[Paddy_SP]

Firstly, I think the catch-release idea is illegal, however, good it sounds.

Secondly, have you asked around to see if there's been any mixy in the area in recent years? Where I live in mid-Devon, we have localised zones where there are no bunnies at all. Go a short way across a valley, and there's hundreds of them. Very strange. Personally, I think it's to do with the way mixy is spread - by fleas. When a bunny gets infected, it gets driven out of its warren by the healthy individuals, and crawls off to die a slow lingering death on its own. Should it find a disused burrow, it will go down it and die there. Any fleas it has on it will then go into what is called 'encystment' - basically this is a ball of hard mucous (think of hardened snot - actually, better not ). In the ideal conditions of a burrow, the fleas can stay in this state for several years. When another bunny enters the hole, the fleas detect its body heat, 'wake up' again, and jump onboard. This poor s*d then gets infected with mixy, and the whole cycle starts again.

Consequently, if there are lots of holes for sick bunnies to die in, I'd imagine it'd be almost impossible to rid the area of mixy. If there aren't any, then the fleas would not be able to survive, and so mixy would only be brought into the area by migrant bunnies.

[~mel~]

theres a shoot, not too far from me
that works on the catch and release system you talk about.
they charge a large fee to shoot at rabbits caught up and down the east coast caravan parks
youve seen the advert in the airgun mags
so how do they get away with that ???
mel

[arjimlad]

It's certainly illegal to release alien species like mink and grey squirrel. I don't know about rabbits though... !

[gurnster75]

It is illegal to release Grey squirrels as they are a non native species, not because they are vermin, so I can't see any reason why you couldn't release rabbits.

[Paddy_SP]

Native / non-native? This is an interesting point - at what point does a species go from being one to the other, I wonder? Squirrels were introduced in the 18th century (from memory), but rabbits weren't introduced long before this - around the 12th century, I believe.

[gurnster75]

You remember squirrels being introduced in the 18th century, how old are you?

[Paddy_SP]

You remember squirrels being introduced in the 18th century, how old are you?

It doesn't matter how old I am - I don't look a day over 350...

[gurnster75]

Nice one...