The bunnies bounce back

Rabbits have always had a reputation for being able to reproduce at a rapid rate, but there weren’t many signs of that happening on my patch last year. Thankfully, things are looking very different this summer and I am delighted to report that these resilient creatures are, once again, breeding like rabbits.

Several factors appear to have contributed to last year’s dearth of bunnies where I live in the west of England. The finger is usually pointed at myxomatosis when rabbit numbers fall off a cliff, but I think the sudden and very dramatic decline is most likely to have been caused by rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD).

This highly infectious disease kills extremely quickly, has a very high mortality rate and often leaves no obvious signs