The Rabbit

The rabbit's main enemy has unquestionable been man for the last few hundred years. Regarded as a major pest for the last 200 years they cause damage to crops, gardens and the countryside. Early in the twentieth century, when the rabbit population was much larger, they caused such extensive damage to crops and trees that they were included in the Pests Act 1954.

In 1954, a flea-carried virus called Myxomatosis was introduced to the wild rabbit population and this killed more than 95% of rabbits in the British Isles.  A distressing disease, Myxomatosis affects the eyes and brain. The drastic reduction in rabbit numbers also caused a decline in the number of foxes, buzzards and other predators.  It also affected the growth of vegetation as unwanted plants such as gorse, bramble and coarse grasses were encouraged to grow with their demise. Rabbits are once again more common, having developed a resistance to the virus, although populations in some areas are occasionally affected by new strains of the virus.

Even though rabbits are once again causing damage to crops and forest plantations, they are providing their natural predators with much needed food.

Rabbits are mainly nocturnal, emerging from their burrows at dawn and dusk, although on warm, sunny days, or in undisturbed places, they will be active all day long. Feeding takes place close to the warren, so the vegetation around it is kept short by grazing.