lack of bunnys

[ulverston moocher 60]

mixy has wiped all the rabbits out in my area, need some rabbits to start my pup lamping on so its a big problem for me at the minute. I can go out on a night at see every think deer,fox,hare but not even see a rabbit, its shocking there was thousands of them few month ago.

yeh same as I have two lurchers that I am just starting but finding it hard to get the conney any odd ones I have seen have been right next to cover and are hard to get a run at

[whin 463]

I LOOKED INTO RABBITS ETC STILL PEOPLE PUTTING MIXI DOWN ,SOME GUYS I NO SHOOT HUNDREDS AT NITE AND LEAVE THEM AS WHEN THEY KEEPER NO RABBITS THE VERMIN HAS TO COME TO BAITED STINK PITS , RAINS NOT HELPD GET A FEW DRY SUMMERS AND THEYLL BE BACK,,MORE VERMIN IN SOME PLACES MORE RATS STOSTS BUZZARDS AND THAT DISEASE , LUCKLY DOWN THIS WAY YOU CAN STILL HAVE A GOOD DAY OR NITE NEVER MASSIVE NUMBERS BUT ENOUGH TO KEP THE DOGS IN TRIM , ANOTHER THING BOX TRAPS AND RABBIT FENCING SOON MOVES THEM ON OR KILLS THEM, PLENTY RABBITS IN SOME BITS AND THERE ALWAYS WILL BE U JUST HAVE TO TRAVEL TO GET THEM , LIKE HARES

[jackard 36]

Love being on the coast line me ha ha!! lots of fun xxx

 

There is one field that pisses me off the most, you can drive past it and every night i have been past it with Karl (he showed me it!) it is just littered with rabbits I so wish i was aloud to lamp on there and shoot

 

Have been told the guy that owns the field would shoot ya head off if you did anything on his ladnd though!! God its soo tempting Grrrrrrrr!!!

just go do it .

[brock1 2]

just shoot them if you can lamp it without any bother. poaching it should be easy.

[Tyla 3,179]

Same round me. The population seems to be slowly dwindling away. Places that use to be heaving with them a few years ago seem to just about be holding and so many of the buries we used to do as kids have just been abandonned. i hadnt thought of VHD, i've not seen any evidence of it but then wouldnt really know what to look for The rabbits we take seem clean and healthy just not alot of them. Had a bit of mixy but no worse than before i think.

[mikeyboy 7]

live midlands and there is real shortage aroung here. seems to be a good few amount of foxes about at mo though

 

atb mike

[Guest Countryboyo]

well kill the fechers and re itroduce the rabbs like what people do with pheasants it does work done it as kids and started a plague of them and as adults they paid us to contriol them, but just luck how that hapen as there were twenty years inbetween letting them go and getting paid for controling them

 

Came across a post on another forum about introducing rabbits but very doubtful it would work. I think the problem in my area is that there is a lot of foxes around as there is quiet a lot of forestry. That and the myxi. But there just dont seem to be much that can be done about it. dont think rearing them like phesants and letting them off would work. plenty of hares in my area alright as the local coursing club netted 150 with ease for this years races.

 

 

 

http://jacksshed.myfreeforum.org/ftopic1995-0-asc-0.php

[Joe Kelly 0]

what about over hunting ? that could be what is going on .

[Guest Countryboyo]

what about over hunting ? that could be what is going on .

 

Good point but dont think that Is the case in my area as I live along the shannon estuary and the area is preserved. I was in a field two days ago that was alive with rabbits last year at this time of year and nothing now. Could only be myxi id say? Still loads of foxes around that are having a field day killing all the gun clubs released phesants. phesants that are so dopey you could nearly catch them by hand. Dont think the foxs would even bother to go try catch rabbits with all the feathered food around. My dog is not getting much to flush these days with the lack of bunnies.

[Guest foxyjo.]

I've had several bits of permission lined up, and when I've gone to follow up on it, been told that they've gone. I'm south & coastal, and whilst there are odd pockets of them about, the numbers have certainly dropped.

[karl_20 0]

Love being on the coast line me ha ha!! lots of fun xxx

 

There is one field that pisses me off the most, you can drive past it and every night i have been past it with Karl (he showed me it!) it is just littered with rabbits I so wish i was aloud to lamp on there and shoot

 

Have been told the guy that owns the field would shoot ya head off if you did anything on his ladnd though!! God its soo tempting Grrrrrrrr!!!

you wouldnt get shot i dont think ?? its litterd in them the field isnt very big but backs on to a railway line, each time i drive past i have a quick shine theres normally 20 to 30 rabbits just sat out on it, i also recently went and lamped some land i used to go on as a kid (didnt have a dog or gun) and thats the same loads of rabbits as its a puplic field and no 1 dares go on it, i have also noticed an increase in hare's in the area never used to see them now im seeing them in the same field all the time and there not lamp shy, cheers karl

[ulverston moocher 60]

what about over hunting ? that could be what is going on .

I try to get out as much as possible usaly 3-4 times a week and never see any body else about so wouldnt think so but you never know but whee I am its highly unlikely.

[border lad 1,047]

Has any body else noticed that there seems to be a hell of a lack of bunnys around cumbria, where I am in ulverston there's usaly plenty but lately theres nothing there is plenty of roe,fox and baddgers aboute but no rabbit or hares even whe ive been out ferreting lately there isnt much at all couple hear and there and no real evidence of mixy.

It is the same up here on the opposite, side of the Solway, there is no evidence of any disease, a vast shortage of Hares, and Rabbits,

 

My theory, is too many boys at the Lamping game, We used to hunt for the pot, but now, fill the van up, (( for evidence, look at the posts, how many is being killed, No land can sustain those numbers,((( the past 3 months, I have been walking over land, that always had its fair share, of rabbits, and Hares, But now the cupboard, is Bare, and I mean BARE,

[Salopian 5]

Last season was bad but this season is even worse. Last year we put it down to a heavy dose of mixy. Every year in our area the rabbits get mixy to some degree about every five they get it really bad. I have never seen mixy reduce the rabbit population to the numbers we are seeing now. Hedgerows where we once would see hundreds of rabbits are bare. We have never over done it they always came back year after year. This is not just on a bit of land but on 10's of thousands of acres that we hunt. Predaters couldn't reduce the numbers like this. Over hunting couldn't. There are areas where the rifle boys can't shoot and areas where it is impossible to get at them with other methods, but this year the rabbits are gone. I have picked up dead rabbits that have blood coming from nose and arse. The keeper next door has done the same. It looks like VHD is killing them. The keeper rang the ministry of ag. to see if they had noticed anything or if there was any new deseases. They told him it was down to 2 years of heavy rain. It will take years for the rabbits to get back to the numbers we were seeing only 3 years ago. We know the rabbit is a surviver and lets hope he does.

 

Good hunting

[jedandlevo 8]

its the same were we go theres nowt about (hartlepool)