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Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit


Fisherman Mike
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There appear to be more rabbits about in my neck of the woods than at any time I can remember in the last 30 years ( since ive been shooting them ).

 

This has also had an incredible effect on the Buzzard population ( rabbits make up over 80% of their diet ) and only last week I saw 11 in the air at one time.

 

You used to see the odd Buzzard in the 70,s but no where near as many as now.

 

I think both population expolsions are a good thing and another indication of how proper control of rabbit populations by shooting rather than chemical and bacterial warfare can benefit the wildlife of Britain.

 

I still see cases of Myxy nearly every spring but the colonies I keep in check appear to have inbred a certain immunity to it.

 

What have you other Bunny Bashers noticed in your areas ?

 

FM

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Same in my neck of the woods, both for rabbit numbers and Buzzard numbers.

 

We can't seem to find anyone locally that ferrets (and is sensible with it), so we've put in a couple of drop boxes this afternoon to see if we can slim

down the numbers where it's difficult to shoot.

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At the start of the season the land where I shoot was heaving in young rabbits. Then came along mixy and wiped most of them out.

I'm now struggling to supply my local butcher with 15 head shot bunnies a week. I sometimes have to cover two or three local farms :thumbs: just to get my quota..

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the farm i shoot on is smothered in them and always has been.we night shoot after the harvest,ferret in winter and do our best to keep on top of them.if we went out three times a week it would make no difference to their numbers they are that prolific.there are too many badger setts on the land for us to ferret the bigger warrens.it would probably help if i could hit bolting rabbits,put me on the back of a pick up and im mustard.give me a bolting rabbit,a days notice and its exact route and i will still end up ploughing a furow :*)

this year we are going to try stinking them out and after a couple of days having a walk around with dogs, semi driven rabbit shooting.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I agree FM i went out last night into an area of my shoot i had not ventured and bloody hell the place was crawling, in the 300 or so yards that i walked i must have seen upwards of about 60-70 rabbits i kid you not, and they must have been the dullest rabbits i have ever come across, we managed to take 9 between the 2 of us in about an hour, good job the car was close by, we could easily have taken a lot more but the cold got the better of us, it was absolutley bloody freezing last night :lol: pics will follow shortly when my mate emails them to me

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This part of the woods had hundreds of rabbits up till august then a mutated strain of mixi hit and since then i have seen only 5 rabbits.

Mixi is a virus much the same as flu. It is a disease that occurs naturally in south american rabbits and because of its ability to mutate, will never be totally erradicated.

So the scenario goes like this the rabbits start to build an immunity to mixi, less and less succumb each year. Till the rabbits hit plague proportions, then a new strain will hit and the cycle starts over again. Bit of a pain but alas a fact of life now.

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