ja_mageia

Rabbit control - 1930's

David Lord is the fourth generation of his family to tackle rabbits on the one property. David's family have been through all the various methods of tackling the rabbit, and whilst they have had great success through management coupled with biocontrols, David is still concerned about the growth in the density and distribution of rabbits, across Australia. David came up with the original idea to see if schools across Australia might help map where rabbits were. Some comments from David on the problem and Australia's current challenge with rabbits:

“Rabbits are often not visible or obvious, until you start looking. But they are insidious and they eat away at the very core of Australia's biodiversity and agricultural production.

At the moment we don't have the huge rabbit plagues of the past. That's because of the spectacular successes of Myxo and RHDV(formerly RCD). But we can't be complacent about this.

We need to work on other controls.

We need to keep an eye on exactly where rabbits are spreading to, and their numbers. That's why we have developed RabbitScan - so anyone and everyone can help us avoid another plague."

"RabbitScan will alert Australia to the distribution and density of rabbits, to where rabbits are and how many we have. RabbitScan will give us an evidence base and a map of the current and potential rabbit threat.

Over the past two decades rabbits have spread northwards and are even now in the World Heritage Wet Tropics. Foxes and feral cats follow rabbits. Foxes will decimate the small ground dwelling native animal populations, which until the impact of rabbits, have been left intact from such intervention."

"There is no one alive today who remembers Australia before rabbits. Soon there will be no one alive who remembers Australia before myxo. That means, soon, there will be no one who remembers the plagues that had Australia covered with billions of rabbits, the related dust storms and loss of native vegetation that rabbits caused. The Australian Story of the rabbit invasion across Australia, was named the worst pest invasion anywhere in the world, in the Guinness Book of Records. But Australians like a challenge, in the face of great odds, and we've really got a challenge with Rabbits. I encourage everyone to scan at least one site in their local area, and help us build the national RabbitScan Google Map. And remember, we need to know where rabbits are not found, as well as the sites where they are found."