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Rabbits in Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Australia, rabbits are the most serious mammalian
pests, an invasive species, and are responsible for the extinction of about as
many native animals as the fox. Annually, European Rabbits cause millions of
dollars of damage to agriculture.
A European
Rabbit in Australia
Effects on Australia's ecology
An erosion
gully in South Australia created by rabbits.
Rabbit's effect on the
ecology of Australia has been devastating. One eighth of all mammalian species
in Australia are now extinct (rabbits are the most significant known factor),
and the loss of plant species is unknown even at this time.
Rabbits are also
responsible for serious erosion problems as they eat native plants which would
have retained soil. Some of this erosion may also be the result of settlers
clearing much of Australia's land for farming and housing.
[edit] Introduction
of rabbits to Australia
Rabbits were first
introduced to Australia by the First Fleet in 1788, but the current infestation
appears to have originated with the release of 24 wild rabbits by Thomas Austin
on his property, Barwon Park (near Winchelsea, Victoria), in 1859 for hunting
purposes. While living in England, Austin had been an avid hunter, regularly
dedicating his weekends to rabbit shooting. Upon arriving in Australia, which
had no native rabbit population, Austin asked his nephew in England to send him
24 grey rabbits, five hares, 72 partridges and some sparrows so that he could
continue his hobby in Australia by creating a local population of the species. Many
other farms released their rabbits into the wild after Austin.
Rabbits are extremely
prolific creatures, and spread rapidly across the southern parts of the
continent. Australia had ideal conditions for a rabbit population explosion. With
mild winters, rabbits were able to breed the entire year. With widespread
farming, areas that may have been desert, scrub, or woodlands were instead
turned into vast areas with low vegetations, creating ideal
"rabbitat". Humans were directly responsible for the initial release
of the rabbits, and indirectly responsible for modifying the Australian
landscape for ideal rabbit survival.
Within ten years of the 1859
introduction, the original 24 rabbits had multiplied so much that two million
could be shot or trapped annually without having any noticeable effect on the
population.
It was the fastest spread
ever recorded of any mammal anywhere in the world. Today rabbits are entrenched
in the southern and central areas of the country, with scattered populations in
the northern deserts.
Rabbit
control measures
Rabbits’
enemies.
Currently, land owners are
legally bound to control rabbits in order to reduce their impact on the land
and local flora and fauna. In fact, rabbit eradication campaigns have become a
popular pastime in the country's rural areas. Control measures generally
include killing them, fertility control, or exclusion, but most of these rabbit
control measures have had an insignificant impact on the rabbit population.
The Rabbit-proof fence was
built in Western Australia, between Cape Kerundun and Esperance to try to
control the rabbit population. European rabbits can both jump very high and
burrow underground, even assuming a perfectly intact fence stretching for
hundreds of miles, and assuming that ranchers or farmers don't leave gates open
for livestock or machinery.
Conventional
control measures
Shooting rabbits is
reasonably common. Poisoning is also often used. Poisoning is probably the most
widely-used of the conventional techniques, as it requires the least effort. The
disadvantage is that the rabbit cannot be used as food for either humans or
pets afterward.
Another technique used
occasionally is hunting using ferrets, where nets are placed over burrow exits
and the ferrets deployed to chase the rabbits into the nets. This is more a
hunting activity than a serious control method.
Historically, trapping was
also frequently used; steel-jawed leg-holding traps were banned in most states
in the 1980s on animal cruelty grounds, though trapping continues at a lower
level using rubber-jawed traps. All of these techniques are limited to working
only in settled areas and are quite labor-intensive.
Biological
measures
Releasing rabbit-borne
diseases has proven somewhat successful in controlling the population of
rabbits in Australia. In 1950, Myxomatosis was deliberately released into the
rabbit population which caused the rabbit population to drop from an estimated
600 million to around 100 million. Genetic resistance in the remaining rabbits
allowed the population to recover to 200-300 million by 1991.
To combat this trend, Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) scientists released rabbit
calicivirus (also known as Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease or RHD) in 1996. However,
it was not as successful as myxomatosis in part because it was estimated to
have been fatal to only 65% of infected rabbits, as opposed to 99% for
myxomatosis.
The Australian Government
refuses to legalise a vaccine to protect pet rabbits against Myxomatosis (a
legal vaccine exists in Australia for RHD), and thousands of pet rabbit owners
in Australia suffer losses of their pet rabbits each year. There is no cure for
either Myxomatosis or RHD, and many affected pets are euthanized. In Europe,
where rabbits are farmed on a large scale, they are protected against
myxomatosis and calicivirus with a genetically modified virus. The virus was
developed in Spain, and is beneficial to rabbit farmers. If it were to make its
way into wild populations in areas such as Australia, this could create a
population boom.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabbits_in_Australia&action=history
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
An erosion
gully in South Australia created by rabbits.
Rabbit's effect on the
ecology of Australia has been devastating. One eighth of all mammalian species
in Australia are now extinct (rabbits are the most significant known factor),
and the loss of plant species is unknown even at this time.
Rabbits are also
responsible for serious erosion problems as they eat native plants which would
have retained soil. Some of this erosion may also be the result of settlers
clearing much of Australia's land for farming and housing.
[edit] Introduction
of rabbits to Australia
Rabbits were first
introduced to Australia by the First Fleet in 1788, but the current infestation
appears to have originated with the release of 24 wild rabbits by Thomas Austin
on his property, Barwon Park (near Winchelsea, Victoria), in 1859 for hunting
purposes. While living in England, Austin had been an avid hunter, regularly
dedicating his weekends to rabbit shooting. Upon arriving in Australia, which
had no native rabbit population, Austin asked his nephew in England to send him
24 grey rabbits, five hares, 72 partridges and some sparrows so that he could
continue his hobby in Australia by creating a local population of the species. Many
other farms released their rabbits into the wild after Austin.
Rabbits are extremely
prolific creatures, and spread rapidly across the southern parts of the
continent. Australia had ideal conditions for a rabbit population explosion. With
mild winters, rabbits were able to breed the entire year. With widespread
farming, areas that may have been desert, scrub, or woodlands were instead
turned into vast areas with low vegetations, creating ideal
"rabbitat". Humans were directly responsible for the initial release
of the rabbits, and indirectly responsible for modifying the Australian
landscape for ideal rabbit survival.
Within ten years of the 1859
introduction, the original 24 rabbits had multiplied so much that two million
could be shot or trapped annually without having any noticeable effect on the
population.
It was the fastest spread
ever recorded of any mammal anywhere in the world. Today rabbits are entrenched
in the southern and central areas of the country, with scattered populations in
the northern deserts.
Rabbit
control measures
Rabbits’
enemies.
Currently, land owners are
legally bound to control rabbits in order to reduce their impact on the land
and local flora and fauna. In fact, rabbit eradication campaigns have become a
popular pastime in the country's rural areas. Control measures generally
include killing them, fertility control, or exclusion, but most of these rabbit
control measures have had an insignificant impact on the rabbit population.
The Rabbit-proof fence was
built in Western Australia, between Cape Kerundun and Esperance to try to
control the rabbit population. European rabbits can both jump very high and
burrow underground, even assuming a perfectly intact fence stretching for
hundreds of miles, and assuming that ranchers or farmers don't leave gates open
for livestock or machinery.
Conventional
control measures
Shooting rabbits is
reasonably common. Poisoning is also often used. Poisoning is probably the most
widely-used of the conventional techniques, as it requires the least effort. The
disadvantage is that the rabbit cannot be used as food for either humans or
pets afterward.
Another technique used
occasionally is hunting using ferrets, where nets are placed over burrow exits
and the ferrets deployed to chase the rabbits into the nets. This is more a
hunting activity than a serious control method.
Historically, trapping was
also frequently used; steel-jawed leg-holding traps were banned in most states
in the 1980s on animal cruelty grounds, though trapping continues at a lower
level using rubber-jawed traps. All of these techniques are limited to working
only in settled areas and are quite labor-intensive.
Biological
measures
Releasing rabbit-borne
diseases has proven somewhat successful in controlling the population of
rabbits in Australia. In 1950, Myxomatosis was deliberately released into the
rabbit population which caused the rabbit population to drop from an estimated
600 million to around 100 million. Genetic resistance in the remaining rabbits
allowed the population to recover to 200-300 million by 1991.
To combat this trend, Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) scientists released rabbit
calicivirus (also known as Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease or RHD) in 1996. However,
it was not as successful as myxomatosis in part because it was estimated to
have been fatal to only 65% of infected rabbits, as opposed to 99% for
myxomatosis.
The Australian Government
refuses to legalise a vaccine to protect pet rabbits against Myxomatosis (a
legal vaccine exists in Australia for RHD), and thousands of pet rabbit owners
in Australia suffer losses of their pet rabbits each year. There is no cure for
either Myxomatosis or RHD, and many affected pets are euthanized. In Europe,
where rabbits are farmed on a large scale, they are protected against
myxomatosis and calicivirus with a genetically modified virus. The virus was
developed in Spain, and is beneficial to rabbit farmers. If it were to make its
way into wild populations in areas such as Australia, this could create a
population boom.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabbits_in_Australia&action=history
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html