Why aren't the lads with high populations of Rabbits helping the lads with none in a hunting community

[beagleman1 2]

All lot of well made points here,

From what I have seen its a combination of factors. I remember one field by the road where I could never get permission with a double ditch running through it that was black with rabbits all summer in 2010. The same field is empty now. This is in an area of low intensity farming. The buzzard population has exploded. But I think the local population was hit with rhd back then and never recovered. We get a crop of young rabbits in  the summer . However, now there is always a buzzard keeping sentinel on a post or telegraph line. Pine Martin's have exploded so are probably doing the same job the badgers are in the UK. When I go lamping now in that area I see more foxes than rabbits. The young rabbits seem to survive up to the end of August and the infection takes them and any survivors are predated. Of course this is just circumspection on my part and you would have to do a proper scientific study to confirm the statistically significant reasons for the rabbit population decline.

I do have isolated permissions where I ferret but will usually catch only a couple of rabbits. Am thinking of catch and release (check of legal first) as I want to protect my sport.

I have seen country sport videos in france and Spain where they built warrens to encourage rabbits to breed and carry out predator control. This type of rabbit rearing is similar to pheasant rearing and is an interesting approach in a different juristication to the problem we are discussing here.

[Lenmcharristar 9,787]

Done it and it worked within 2 yrs we were seeing bunnies out during the day time, we took rabbits from different areas to keep the gene pool mixed enough and it’s been a success

[bendrover 556]

20 hours ago, jiggy said:

Like your idea as long as you don't drop an infected rabbit into a previously clean area. Still haven't heard any thoughts on the legality of dropping them. Do Uk laws differ from Ireland. Are they regarded as invasive species. It would be a shame to break the law.

It does work . The more you introduce fresh blood the better . And the infection is best controlled by doing the removals after a load of frosts . Although.  Rhvd1 can lay dormant on the ground for 150 days and as the name says , is viral . No fleas needed . My belief is that we , the pursuers of the rabbit actually spread the disease moving from place to place . But they reckon its transferred on birds feet etc.  All we can do is keep loads of small pockets topped up . Eventually the humble rabbit will overcome these horrible diseases just as he has built up immunity to mixy . Do your bit lads . It's quite rewarding tbh

Edited December 12, 2018 by bendrover

[bigmac 97kt 13,792]

A few have sayd its down to air gunners but iv got perms

that iv not shot the shit out of but still seen a drop in numbers big time

iv got one perm that the farmer wants all the hares shot 

and yes when he is around (watching) i do shoot them but when he is not i dont

but if some one asks for one ill shoot one for them .

now this farmer wants them shot because some dog lads with there 4x4,s cant be bothered to get out and open a gate 

they just push the gate down with the 4x4 or drive through fences and hedges

but you dont see me or any one else saying its the dog lads do you

after all your the kings of hunting are you not and as for head butting us come and try it

the farmer is that sick now if he catches any one on his land with a dog and a 4x4 he will shoot the dogs

some thing i dont agree with at all

but some farmers are like that .

this new disease is more potent than mixy as it only takes 24 or 48 hours to kill the rabbits 

so dose not take long to wipe them out and fox,s will take the body's away

At the end of the day its us all that will suffer in the long run

and it will be the end of all our sports

but nature has a way of bouncing back

iv got a lot of respect for the dog lads and there dogs and there sport

you lot have to put years of training into the dogs

and some have impressed the hell out of me

and im not just saying that lads

But its a hard thing to do is catch and release when you use a rifle to hunt

as i do ,

or id happily do it

Its not just the air gunners i think its down to all of us in one way or another

and nature its self

or you could just go and buy an air rifle lol

atvbjimmy

 

[Black neck 15,978]

I apologise if it's already bin mentioned but I think the air gunners may be the main problem 

And the can get very defensive I'm told

[Chaff 3,621]

Not sure if all air gunners recognize a season ?

Honest question