Rabbits may be in danger

[stevethefish 80]

Looking forward to your reports and vids again Steve, hope theres a good few around for the crew.

We will be out this week at some point I hope so will be starting the reports and adding videos too

[AndyKelly 251]

drop boxes,vhd,mixy and alot of rabbiters in the country, am not surprised that the rabbits are on the decline. 1,500 people on this website so a possible 3,000+ rabbits disappearing every week its going to take a long time for the bunnies to recover from this if we aint careful. can see the possibilities of exhausting the supply. ferreting out of season is rife up here working the hobs and i have seen jills in season being worked too. mabey we need to go back to the old fashioned do not touch approach in the summer months.give them a chance to recoup the bunny loss from march-sept

[Brimmer 220]

drop boxes,vhd,mixy and alot of rabbiters in the country, am not surprised that the rabbits are on the decline. 1,500 people on this website so a possible 3,000+ rabbits disappearing every week its going to take a long time for the bunnies to recover from this if we aint careful. can see the possibilities of exhausting the supply. ferreting out of season is rife up here working the hobs and i have seen jills in season being worked too. mabey we need to go back to the old fashioned do not touch approach in the summer months.give them a chance to recoup the bunny loss from march-sept

 

Halleleuja!

 

Thats great talk from somebody who was posting of ferreting last June, check your started threads if you have forgotten!

 

To be honest it probably needs the boundarys shifting from Feb To the end of Sept to really help. If you are keen enough, you can have done all you need to in this time.

Aside of that its pest control, which sometimes needs to be done, and there are better more effective and easier methods than ferreting.

[torchey 1,328]

i think all of the above has definitely having an impact and with that affordable nightvision which years ago wasn,t available but now virtually everyone i know has it

[AndyKelly 251]

it was pest control that once i went out in june - at night when it was cool dont like doing it but the villagers asked and i felt at that time i had to respond or lose that bit of permission. i hadnt forgotton about it - in the last few years i can count on one had when a situation like that has cropped up

[masmiffy 82]

For sure there are less on our permissions but the we have accounted for an awful lot with the rifles (as requested by landowners)

I dont ferret anymore as the 'season' seemed to get shorter and shorter and I was never a mobile hedging and ditching service!

Speaking of ditches with all the rain the ditches have been flooded and I guess there is a chance that the rabbits drown if they cant find dry ground quick?

 

Perhaps we all need to have a close season as has been suggested but I know that my permissions would soon be someone elses if I didnt do a good job!

Edited December 17, 2012 by masmiffy

[Guest annette jackman]

Three of my permissions have been hit hard with mixy one more to try but to be honest dont hold much hope on that either. Near my work was over run with rappits, i havnt seen one rappit in about two months now just alot of fox. Could be slim pickings this season

[stones12345 0]

theres alot of mixi around where i go ferreting not many about this season

[micky 3,325]

I have a lot of land that usually holds good numbers of rabbits but this years theres not many about ,mixi is with me all year round but its not as potent as it once was buzzards and badgers take a few but even it out by getting rid of the sick and the weak ,I think its mainly down to the weather,young rabbits will die if they eat to much wet food and they don't like the cold either, another thing that seems to be getting more popular is summer shooting one chap near me shot over 600 last June, think how many litters of rabbits died when the does were shot and how many pregnant does were shot as well

[bunny tickler 876]

i have been advocateing a close season for rabbits for years yet i am laughed at . ive been rabbiting 45 years & it has never been as dire as of now ,ok before the smart arses jump down my throat ,yes there are good numbers but only on keepered or protected land ,think about it ,they are lamped & shot by nv the moment the first silage crops are cut then sniped on summers evening then lamped ,netted shot ferreted the rest of the year ,they dont stand a feckin chance ,its just a matter of time lads ,i bet your grandkids wont be ferreting in 10 yrs time ,, take a few dont take them all ,,we got 26 last monday but we left a couple of warrens alone landowner was happy we was happy

[j j m 6,555]

Went out for a walk today no gun the place was running wild with rabbits

[whippet 99 2,613]

we keep having all these bags of hundreds of rabbits they will be exstinct soon lol..........

[The one 8,494]

Last year when i had a litter of kits i lamped a piece of ground every week during the summer to feed the kits and theres still plenty rabbits on it , man has been trying to destroy rabbits since they where first introduced and never managed it

[NETS 11]

The land close to me has been hit with myxomatosis the last 3 years which means the rabbits are very tin on the ground so will have to leave for a few more seasons or maybe more for them to return in enough numbers so that i can hunt again in these places.The first year there was so many dead rabbits lying about the foxs had stopped eating/gathering them up to later eat that they were left rotting in the fields(unless i came across one alive with the decease that i gave to the ferrets or dogs to have).It has just meant i have had to travel further a field to get my rabbits and im glad i did try some new places this year.As the numbers have been the biggest ever,even tho im not a numbers man and once i get a few rabbits on a trip and the dogs,ferrets and me get home safe then thats what i call a good days ferreting but its always nice to break/make a new record now and again.Rabbits will always survive even the ones that have been hit bad with myxomatosis close to me i can see slowly coming back the ones that survived the myomatosis passing there genetics on to make stronger animals and other rabbits moving in from else where.Rabbits like other animals that use borrows will always be effected by wet weather to some degree but have learned to adapt to it.When theres very wet years they have learned to move to burrows on higher ground were they can survive.Just like when there infested with mites,ticks and fleas they've learned to move burrow to a new one as a lot of burrows have these pests but rabbits dont mind them till they reach plague proportions(unless theres myomatosis infected fleas in which case most rabbits are infected unless they've had it before), as rabbits and other mammals will know of other burrows and holes it can use in its territory.

[stevethefish 80]

Its a natural instinct for such as rabbits to overcome, they have been almost wiped out in the past and came back with vengence. The biggest problem we may face is the price of food rising rapidly and human population increasing. It won't be long before a lot more people start thinking about cheaper alternative meat sources. I have noticed that rabbit is becoming more popular in butchers and it seems that people that have never eaten rabbit before are starting to take a peek. If it becomes a relitively cheap source of food and recognised as such (to the greenies and yuppies) then we may have a problem. The price of rabbit in some butchers makes me cringe to think we sell them so cheap to friends, I would never pay £6 for a rabbit but if you think of it this way it can feed a family of 5.