TURNING UP THE HEAT
Rabbits have a reputation for being able to breed quickly. That reputation is based on fact and means that they are able to bounce back after a slump.
A few years ago rabbits went from being abundant to alarmingly scarce across much of the country.
This was down to several reasons; I don’t think the huge numbers of badgers helped, and myxomatosis was a factor, but rabbit haemorrhagic disease played the biggest part – and the rapid decline points to this virulent disease.
Thankfully, we have seen a marked recovery in the rabbit population in my locality over the past year or so.
Numbers seem to be more or less back to where they were before the sudden drop, and in some areas they are noticeably higher.
Although I am delighted to see an abundance of rabbits in the countryside again, several landowners are not so excited. Where numbers have spiked, crops are decimated, banks are undermined and young trees are nibbled. In these cases, I am happy to keep them in check.
Apart from being very good at breeding, rabbits have a talent for learning how to avoid danger. Back
