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Varminting in Australia


Stevyrob

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4 hours ago, Alycidon said:

Its also nice to see you have something to shoot at,    where I am in the Middle of the UK we have pretty big areas with no decernable rabbit population.   The introduction of Viral Hemmorging Disease and now Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD-2)   has just about wiped them out.    I drive for three or four hours most evenings and nights within about 50 miles and almost never see a rabbit.    In the late 1980s I have shot 75 from a small 15 acre block and could easily kill 100 in a a few hours under a lamp.    These days seeing half a dozen in one heap makes my day.

A

 

We are now in a similar position out here. Since I did that video two new releases of Calicivirus have been introduced and basically wiped the rabbits out.

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Rabbits here in NZ have made a (temporary) comeback. They were decimated about a decade ago when some farmers illegally introduced RCD (Calici virus) but did it in a half-@ssed fashion which delivered a weakened strain. Rabbits have subsequently developed a high degree of resistance to it and it's now pretty useless. Our cat has dismembered two small rabbits (inside the house) in the last week.

Gov't plans are afoot to release a more potent strain in the near future. Both the cat and myself will be pretty unhappy when this happens.

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On 12/25/2017 at 6:55 AM, Chris-NZ said:

Rabbits here in NZ have made a (temporary) comeback. They were decimated about a decade ago when some farmers illegally introduced RCD (Calici virus) but did it in a half-@ssed fashion which delivered a weakened strain. Rabbits have subsequently developed a high degree of resistance to it and it's now pretty useless. Our cat has dismembered two small rabbits (inside the house) in the last week.

Gov't plans are afoot to release a more potent strain in the near future. Both the cat and myself will be pretty unhappy when this happens.

This new strain you talk of is what has most probably been released here as this version doesn't allow the rabbits to build up immunity to it.

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I'd suggest this claim is mere wishful thinking. Short of straight chemical poisoning or mechanical destruction (ie, bullets), organisms have a remarkable ability to develop resistance and often full immunity given enough time.  As they say, time will tell :)

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