Rabbits – More? Same? Fewer?

[team tractor]

I've seen a couple on my shoots but that's over 500 acres in one village . Totally dead really but last year we had mxy again which is every 4-5 years of late

[blackbird]

Absolutely none round here anymore,

 

+1

[Davyo]

Plenty but getting lamp shy,gonna leave emm for a bit, still getting double figures on the ferret though.

[kennett]

I've got fewer than expected this year, year before last I lamped just under 1000 from 340 acres, last year around 3-400 but hardly managed to get out due to water logged fields so expected to be over run by now. Went out last Thursday and only managed 12 whereas before 30s, 40s and 50s were easy. The best in one night was 75 and they were causing massive damage but crops look good so far

[Gimlet]

I had plenty of adults but fewer juveniles than usual last summer up to the point where the crops got too high to shoot. As the harvest dragged on into October because of the wet summer I was panicking because I thought there'd be masses of youngsters to deal with and I'd struggle to get back on top before autumn set in. But when the crops came off they were gone. I've had a deadly quiet winter, in fact I've shot more foxes than rabbits. But they are picking up now. I'm finding juveniles and pregnant does. As Kent says the areas that were first to produce again were chalky banks and dry sheltered banks around farm buildings.

I hope my NV comes back from the menders before things really kick off again.

 

 

 

I have more hare than rabbit, if I quoted any numbers without picture evidence I'd get taken apart on here.

 

I can believe it. We've had a rapid expansion of hares. During the snow I counted ten in one field.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Gimlet

[Alycidon]

Not had any to speak off for over 5 years, all died out within a few weeks. Some evenings I could shoot 50 with a 22LR. In the last year I have shot less than a handfull.

 

Believe VHD came through.

 

A

[FalconFN]

I've just a walk round a nearby turf field that I shoot and I counted just over 30. Shot 4 and they were all healthily with a nice layer of fat over the kidneys.

[SakoQuad]

Several areas that usually have plenty appear completely devoid of any at the moment much more so than just the lower numbers you'd expect to see this time of year.

 

Myxi through 2010 and 2011 was rife and am guessing that combined with the wet / cold weather over past months many have died off.

 

Strangely the few I have seen in the past week have been very young kits which feels a bit early but don't know what to make of that!

[Reece]

I often think they have all gone at the back end of winter, by june I shall be thinking we are inundated. Lost 95% of mine Autumn 2010 to mixi numbers will still look good in June. Wet weather means a lot are lost, dry well drained ground like railway embankments always seem to hold a lot for the same reason in reverse

 

Now that I think about it, there's a railway embankment near me that has long had a lot of rabbits that still has good numbers of rabbits. Makes me think the weather might be playing a part, not just myxi. I heard somewhere that a high water table can flood some of the burrows. Is this true?

[Gimlet]

Now that I think about it, there's a railway embankment near me that has long had a lot of rabbits that still has good numbers of rabbits. Makes me think the weather might be playing a part, not just myxi. I heard somewhere that a high water table can flood some of the burrows. Is this true?

 

I don't see why not. At least they could become uninhabitably wet if not flooded. My rabbits disappeared during the summer. Rabbits certainly migrate to escape environmental pressures or over-predation including over-zealous shooters (when they invariably turn up somewhere else on your farm where they're far more difficult to deal with). It could be that the unseasonable rainfall caused them to up sticks before they became flooded. I have noticed more rabbits in neighbouring woodland. Woodlands can absorb much higher rainfall than open ground can cope with.

[jgguinness]

The harvest of 2011, in a 70 acre field we shot 130 plus off the combine, then went back the following evening and lamped a further 30 or so. The harvest of 2012, the same field and we managed 8!!!

 

Mixi was around a bit but I don't think it could alter the numbers that much.

 

Kind regards

Jonathan

[jonesbach]

Struggling for any numbers around my way, higher grounds don't even seem to have any. Starting to think rising numbers of buzzards and kites are taking effect on them....?!

[Diceman]

Used to be that I could walk out into the field and 20 or 30 would scatter into the hedges, but seen hardly any over the last 12 months. We had a bad dose of mixy 2 years ago which wiped a lot out and the shoot over the road from us was stopped by the new tenant so nobody is controlling the foxes and we are riddled with them, so I guess they aren't doing the rabbit population much good.

[sharkbait]

ive found a fair few dead ones in hedgebacks with no apparant wounds. I dont see as many as i did. As above i think its to do withh the high water table due to the wet summer, all the burrows will be flooded at lower levels, like moles they have parhaps moved to higher ground...

ive found a fair few dead ones in hedgebacks with no apparant wounds. I dont see as many as i did. As above i think its to do withh the high water table due to the wet summer, all the burrows will be flooded at lower levels, like moles they have parhaps moved to higher ground...

+1 very thin on the ground

[thepasty]

I'd stopped lamping towards the end of last year because there were so few rabbits about, the last time I went out I saw very few rather than the herds I was used too seeing through the summer. I went out earlier in the week to check whether they were still about and saw none... not a sausage.

[jackinbox99]

Very few around my way. Used to be no end of them. But then again, there werent as many last year I noticed.

[FarmerSim]

Not seen any since the middle of last year, when Mixy came along... it seemed to decimate them - talking to neighbouring farmers, they say the same.

 

Even in the snow, no rabbit tracks anywhere I have been - a few hares, and the odd charlie, but no wabbits.

 

ATB

 

Sim

[kennett]

Turns out I have more than I thought in my other post. Went out foxing last night so we were out later and being much quieter and saw a lot more rabbits out later in the night, also in worse weather conditions with strong winds and heavy snow. So maybe rabbits are changing their habits and feeding later! Got a vixen in really good condition at 220 yards so was a good night

[FalconFN]

I went out again this afternoon to a different permission and saw an average number for this time of year, they were sunning themselves and 'frollicking' and way too busy to see me stalking them.

[bullet1747]

More and more for me ,got some new permission lol

Edited February 14, 2013 by bullet1747

[Davyo]

We where out ferreting last weekend and the ferret seemed to have one in a stop.We dug down 3ft the ferret pulled out covered in wet mud,found the rabbit in a waterlogged stop.Still warm don't know if it was killed by ferret or poss drowned.There is a lot of the warrens totaly flooded on our patch.

[Wharf Rat]

Very few around. Several burrows seem to be flooded. Foxes are doing well enough though.

[Scottoj18]

I shoot a quarry still a few over there. The sandy earth must help drain the water ..

[Gimlet]

They're showing up again here. I've started seeing more active burrows, which were definitely abandoned a few weeks ago. There are youngsters and half grown yearlings. Not huge numbers but an entire community of all age groups have shown up en masse. So they've been surviving and breeding somewhere but not here on the farmland. They must have migrated when the going got too wet. We do have a thousand acres of woodland on the boundry and I wonder whether they haven't spent the winter in there.

Edited February 19, 2013 by Gimlet

[Reece]

I've been up to the farm a few times recently, and I've seen some rabbit tracks and droppings, and some of the burrows in use last year still appear to be in use.

 

There's a warren on the edge of a spruce plantation which seems to be in use, seemingly by quite a few rabbits judging by the droppings and scratched soil. Probably because it's in a spruce plantation and on a steep hillside. The hillside means it's well draining, and the dense spruce plantation makes it warm and sheltered. The farmer who is there more often than me says there's a lot in there.