Why are people afraid of rabbits in Australia? Australia's favorite rake

It began in 1859, when Australian farmer Thomas Austin released several rabbits into his park. This happened in Victoria, Geelong area. Before this, rabbits were introduced to Australia by early colonists as a source of meat and were usually kept in cages. Thomas Austin was an avid hunter and decided that rabbits would not cause much harm, would be an excellent source of meat and would be a pleasure to hunt in the wild.

According to other sources, releases or escapes of rabbits into the wild were noted several times in the mid-19th century in the south and north of the continent, so Thomas Austin alone should not be blamed for the spread of rabbits.

The idea was good. Rabbits reproduce very quickly, have tasty dietary meat and quite valuable skins (rabbit fluff), which was important for the first settlers. Before this, rabbits were quite successfully introduced to the USA and South America, where no problems arose with them - they became involved in the ecosystems and their numbers were controlled by the natural predators of these places. But Australia is a special continent, so everything is different.

Problems began within a few years. The number of rabbits has grown significantly and they began to be found 100 km from the place of initial release. No one took into account the fact that rabbits reproduce exponentially: one female rabbit can produce 20-40 rabbits per year, and after a year the total family increases to 350 individuals. Since there are no cold winters in Australia, rabbits began to breed almost all year round. A good climate, plenty of food and the absence of natural predators provided excellent conditions for explosive population growth. By the beginning of the 20th century, the number of rabbits was approximately 20 million, and by the middle of the century - already 50 million. There were 75-80 rabbits per inhabitant of Australia.

They began to fight rabbits as enemies of sheep. The animals ate up all the pastures, and the sheep did not have enough food. The following figures are given: 10 rabbits eat the same amount of grass as 1 sheep, but the sheep produces 3 times more meat.

It seems that local residents cared little about the problems of preserving flora and fauna, but rabbits caused damage not only to sheep and. Where rabbits lived, several species of kangaroos died before 1900 (they lacked food), other small marsupials were seriously damaged, as well as some species of native fauna - rabbits ate plants by the roots and gnawed young trees, destroying them completely.

As a result, the common European rabbit has become a typical representative of an invasive animal species - this is the name given to living organisms that, as a result of their introduction into new ecosystems, begin to actively invade them and displace the indigenous inhabitants.

The fight against rabbits itself has brought a lot of trouble for Australian flora and fauna. Initially, they decided to introduce natural enemies of rabbits - foxes, ferrets, cats, stoats, weasels. But the attempt was unsuccessful. The introduced species also became invasive, switching to native marsupials and birds that were not as fast as rabbits and could not resist the new predators.

Then they turned to traditional methods - pesticides, shooting, blowing up holes. This was not effective given the huge number of animals. In the state of Western Australia in the period from 1901 to 1907. They built a huge wire fence. It’s just like “Rabbit Fence No. 1”. The fence is constantly patrolled by cars, rabbit tunnels are filled up, and rabbits are shot.

At first the fence was patrolled on camels. After the advent of cars, camels were released into the wild as unnecessary, they multiplied, began to destroy pastures, and a new problem appeared in Australia.

In the mid-50s. In the 20th century, medical advances began to be used to combat rabbits. Rabbit fleas infected with the myxomatosis virus were brought to Australia. This disease causes tumors and death in rabbits. In this way, about 90% of the diseased animals were destroyed. But the remaining rabbits developed immunity, and over time they began to get sick less often and die even less often. So at the moment the rabbit problem in Australia is still not solved.

True, he did not take into account that rabbits are extremely fertile, and they very quickly spread throughout the southern part of the district. Australia has the ideal conditions for an explosive growth of the rabbit population. Vast plains covered with low vegetation turned out to be an ideal habitat for them, and mild winters made it possible to produce offspring all year round.

The spread of rabbits to Australia has become a classic example of unexpected consequences. Within 10 years of the rabbits' release, they had proliferated so much that the annual extermination (by shooting, poisons or traps) of two million rabbits had no noticeable effect on the rabbit population. An attempt to bring natural enemies of rabbits (such as foxes) to Australia was also unable to correct the situation, since they began to destroy representatives of the local fauna instead of rabbits. The spread of rabbits was the fastest spread of a mammal species in known history. Today, rabbits are fenced off in the southern and central regions of the country, with scattered populations also found in the northern deserts.

Although rabbits are pests, they nevertheless proved useful during the economic depressions of the 1890s and 1930s and during wars. Harvesting rabbits by farmers and ranchers provided them with food and additional income, and in some cases helped farmers pay off their debts. Rabbits were used as food by service dogs, and when boiled, they were also used as homemade food. Later, frozen rabbit carcasses began to be sold locally and for export. Rabbit skins are also traded and are still used in hats and clothing.

Impact on Australia's ecology

Once released into the wild in Australia in the 19th century, they had a devastating impact on Australia's natural environment. It is assumed that rabbits were the main cause of extinction of many species of Australian animals, the scale of extinction at that time remains unknown. Rabbits often destroy young trees in orchards, forests and estates by gnawing off the bark on them.

The proliferation of rabbits has led to increased erosion: they eat seedlings, leaving the topsoil defenseless and vulnerable to sheet erosion, gullying and weathering. The disappearance of the top layer of soil devastates the land, and it takes many hundreds of years to restore it.

Number control

By 1887, the damage caused by the spread of rabbits forced the New South Wales government to offer a significant bonus for "any successful method of effectively exterminating rabbits heretofore unknown in the colony." This proposal attracted the attention of Louis Pasteur, who came up with the idea of using fowl fever bacilli (now known as Pasteurella multocida) and, although the value of this measure has not been proven in practice, it hastened the development of microbiology in Australia.

In 1901, a royal commission investigated the situation. Since the problem was recognized, various methods have been used to reduce the rabbit population in Australia. These methods had limited success until the introduction of biological control methods in the second half of the 20th century.

Traditional control methods

Shooting rabbits is one of the most common methods of population control and can be successfully used to keep populations under control while providing food for people and pets, although full-scale extermination requires different methods.

Destruction of rabbit warrens by loosening the soil (during this procedure the rabbits die or are buried alive after bulldozer harrows destroy their burrows), plowing, explosions, and disinfection are used on a large scale, especially on large farms (called "stations"). Loosening and plowing are effective methods in many areas of Australia due to the sandy soil, using tractors and bulldozers.

Perhaps the most widely used method is poisoning, as it requires minimal effort. The disadvantage of this method is that after this the rabbits cannot be eaten by both people and pets. For poisoning, the most commonly used are sodium fluoroacetate (“1080”) and pindone.

Another method is hunting with the help of domestic ferrets, which drive rabbits out of their burrows under gunfire or into nets. However, ferrets can only kill a limited number of rabbits, so this method is more of a hunt than a serious method of limiting control.

Historically, traps have been used periodically. Since 1980, steel jaw traps that hold victims by the paws have been banned in most states as part of the fight against animal cruelty, although rubber jaw traps continue to be used. These methods are only used in populated areas and are labor intensive.

Fence

In 1907, in an attempt to control the rabbit population in Western Australia, a rabbit-proof fence was erected between Cape Caraudren and Esperance. European rabbits can jump quite high and dig holes under fences. Even if hundreds of miles of fence were maintained and farmers and ranchers were prevented from leaving gates open to allow livestock or vehicle traffic, it is unlikely that the fence would prove a success.

Biological measures

The introduction of rabbit pathogens into Australia has proven to be an effective population control measure. In 1950, after research conducted by Frank Fenner, the myxoma virus introduced from South America was widespread in the rabbit population, which led to a reduction in the rabbit population from 600 to 100 million. However, the few surviving rabbits developed genetic resistance to the virus, thanks to which by 1991 the population size had recovered to 200-300 million.

It has been observed that myxovirus, originally endemic to a wild Brazilian species of rabbit, has been responsible several times for fatal epizootics in European domestic rabbits - which are a different species. Therefore, in 1950, the virus was purposefully transferred to Australia in the hope of getting rid of the short-sightedly brought here in the 19th century. European rabbits, which have become a real scourge of local agriculture. In the first year, myxomatosis produced an excellent (for Australian farmers) rate of 99.8% of deaths among infected individuals. Unfortunately for farmers, the following year the mortality rate dropped to 90% and eventually stabilized at 25%, ending Australian plans to eradicate the rabbit scourge. The problem was that the myxovirus evolved and was guided by its own interests, which differed not only from rabbits, but also from ours. As a result of its modification, rabbits became less likely to become infected, and those infected did not die longer. Thus, the evolved myxovirus learned to transmit its offspring to a larger number of rabbits than its overly active predecessor was able to do.

To combat this trend, the State Association for Scientific and Applied Research, starting in June 1991, comprehensively tested the calcivirus that causes rabbit hemorrhagic disease for three years. The virus had spread beyond the quarantine zone on Wardang Island off the coast of South Australia, where field trials were taking place to determine its potential for control of wild rabbits, and by late October 1995 it had been reported in rabbits at Yunta and Gum Creek in north-eastern Australia . By the winter of 1996, the virus had spread across Victoria, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The virus was only more successful in extreme heat, as another calcivirus appeared in cooler, more humid areas of Australia, which helped immunize rabbits against the more dangerous form.

There is a vaccine against rabbit hemorrhagic disease in Australia. Myxomatosis and hemorrhagic disease of rabbits are incurable, and many infected domestic animals have been killed. In Europe, rabbits are raised on a large scale, and there they were protected from the calcivirus by a genetically modified form of it. The vaccine was developed in Spain.

Notes

Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser 22 May 1827
Cunningham P. Two years in New South Wales, vol. 1, p. 304
Sydney Gazette 28 May 1831
The Rabbit problem in Austalia (undefined) . Retrieved January 27, 2013. Archived February 6, 2013.
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia (undefined) . Retrieved May 30, 2008. Archived February 6, 2013.
Australian Encyclopaedia, Vol, VII, Grolier Society, Sydney
Advertising. - Extermination of rabbits. (September 7, 1887), p. 11. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
A microbial history of Australia (unspecified) // Livestock Horizons / Puls, Margaret. -St. Lucia, Queensland: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Livestock Industries, 2006. - April (Vol. 2, No. 2). -

In Australia, this animal presented humans with a real rabbit problem. A total of 16 rabbits from England were brought to the country of kangaroos and platypuses in 1859. And released in the Geelong area in Victoria. In three years, it has proliferated so much that it has been recognized as a potential scourge of the country. But it was already too late.

The rabbit began his victorious march across the fifth continent. The fertile pastures on the western side of the Great Dividing Range, the forest belt zone and the savannah turning into a plain, the rabbit found all these places very suitable for itself. Moreover, there was not a single serious obstacle to its spread: after all, all the enemies remained far away in Europe. When foxes and cats were brought to Australia to fight rabbits, they did not want to hunt the nimble animals, but preferred to catch slow marsupials, dig up weed chicken incubators and steal eggs.

Rabbits, meanwhile, were spreading north and west at a rate of 70 miles a year, increasing their numbers enormously.

In Australia and New Zealand, the rabbit breeds almost all year round. Only in the middle of summer, when the grass burns out, is there a short break in their reproduction. This is in Australia. In New Zealand, on the contrary, they stop breeding in winter. On average, one female here brings 20 rabbits per year, and in Australia even 40.

You can imagine what harm this whole horde does to cattle breeding if 10 rabbits eat as much grass as one sheep. How could they not fight these hordes! They spent a lot of money and incredible efforts. They destroyed millions of animals using pesticides. And it was as if they had done nothing. The long-eared settlers prospered. The Australians had to divide the continent from north to south with a thousand-kilometer fence into two parts: one for people, the other for rabbits. But the animals also found ways to get across it. The number of rabbit people was 75 times greater than the human population of the continent.

Among the rabbits of South America, a disease is common, which occurs in animals in a fairly mild form and they almost do not die from it. The causative agent of the disease belongs to the group of viruses, and its carriers are mosquitoes and other flying blood-sucking insects. This disease was first discovered when European domestic rabbits brought there fell ill in a laboratory at one of the hospitals.

Not so soon, but over time the name of this disease became known to almost the whole world. It was rabbit myxomatosis.

Scientists in Europe and Australia decided to use this disease to combat annoying animals. But at first the experiments were not successful. The disease did not want to spread. And only in 1950 in Australia, experiments carried out on infecting rabbits in humid areas brought the long-awaited result: death began to mow down long-eared rabbits right and left. Probably, in those places there were mosquitoes that became carriers of the infection. Then myxomatosis was artificially introduced into various parts of Australia, but only where mosquitoes lived did the “bacteriological war” succeed. In arid areas, rabbits did not get sick.

In many parks and gardens in France, thousands of wild rabbits were rampant, without any control. Entomologist and tuberculosis researcher Dr. Armand Delisle, having fenced off an area of land that belonged to him with a wire mesh, released two rabbits there, having previously infected them with myxomatosis. After six weeks, 98 percent of the wild rabbits had died. But none of the pets who lived in the rabbitry were harmed. So it's not just mosquitoes.

Residents of the surrounding villages, having heard about such a brilliant war with rabbits, without waiting for the end of the experiment, simply stole several sick animals and released them into the wild.

From Alsace, “rabbit death” came to Germany, and from there to the rest of European countries. Somehow she got to England and reduced the number of wild rabbits there to the level that it reached at the beginning of the 19th century. Since 1953, the use of kapoks was banned in England, and the enemies of rabbits managed to multiply again.

While myxomatosis was spreading across Europe, scientists were able to find out that its main carrier in many places was fleas. That's why Dr. Delisle's domestic rabbits remained alive: fleas from wild animals did not reach them.

The Australians immediately got hold of rabbit fleas, and only then did the “rabbit pestilence” finally break out in Australia. He destroyed almost all the infected rabbits. Almost! Rabbits that suffered a mild form of the disease recovered and developed immunity against this terrible disease. Every year, more and more rabbits did not get myxomatosis, and those who got sick more and more often recovered.

So the rabbit problem in Australia remains unresolved to this day.

Austrian rabbits or the so-called Vienna Blues are well known to both European and domestic breeders. These small, but very beautiful and cute animals received universal love thanks to the excellent qualities of their fur. They are very dense, do not require additional processing or cutting, and are distinguished by an unusual bluish color. In addition, many people find Vienna Blues to be good pets. Its small size, gentle calm character and cute appearance have made this breed a favorite among decorative pets.

Breed Features

The main feature of this breed lies in the excellent quality of the skin. The blue rabbit has thick fur with a strong shine, an original color, although it is rarely used in its natural color. The fur of these animals is very valuable in light industry; it is used in its pure form, as well as to imitate more valuable fur-bearing animals. Their soft skins are used to make fur products, clothing, and interior textiles. In addition to obtaining skins, it is bred for decorative purposes, as well as for dietary meat.

After The Russian ermine is the second most popular fur breed of rabbit in our country.

Origin

The name of the breed itself suggests that blue rabbits come from Austria. The breed was developed in the suburbs of Vienna in 1885 by crossing small local Moravian rabbits with large Flanders. The unique color was achieved through careful selection of candidates for crossing with blue coat color. At the end of the 1920s, this breed, along with many others, came to the Soviet Union, where domestic rabbit breeders immediately paid attention to it. At that time, they were interested not only in valuable fur, but also in the good fertility of animals, excellent meat qualities and high weight gain.

Almost until the 60s, rabbits dispersed to all farms in the country, however, in the Russian climate, the breed did not immediately produce good productive qualities. Local breeders focused on adapting rabbits to harsh climatic conditions and local feed; careful work was carried out to improve their skin qualities.

Appearance

The Viennese blue rabbit is not large in size, however, it has a harmonious physique and a fairly strong constitution. The body length reaches 58 cm, the head is light, the ears are of medium size no more than 16 cm. The animals' chest is wide, deep, the back is long, but also wide and muscular. The paws are strong and straight.

As for wool, the fur is dense, soft to the touch, and has a bright shine. The color of the guard and underfur do not differ in color. The downy hair is very thick, slightly lighter than the main blue color. Babies are born with a gray coat, which after the second molt takes on a characteristic bluish color. In summer, in warm regions, the guard hair may acquire a slight brownish tint, which is considered normal.

Blue Viennese rabbits, in addition to their bluish coat color, also have dark blue eyes and claws with a bluish tint.

Productive characteristics

The main productive focus of this breed is, of course, valuable fur. If we evaluate its quality, then there are more than 20,000 hairs per 1 cm of animal skin. In addition, animals have more downy hairs than guard hairs. This creates a unique, very soft fur that is highly valued in the fur industry.

In addition to obtaining skins from this breed, despite its small size, meat is used. Thus, adult individuals weigh up to 5 kg, less often up to 7 kg. When properly fed, babies develop and grow quickly, so by 4 months they already gain more than 70% of their total adult weight.

Features of breeding

Another important characteristic of Blue Viennese rabbits is their good fertility. Females are distinguished by very good maternal qualities, have high milk production, and give birth to approximately 9 rabbits per litter. After the birth of babies, the female rarely abandons her offspring, carefully cares for and feeds the rabbits for a long time, which affects the good health of the offspring. The babies themselves eat a lot, so often there is not enough milk from one female, so you can place the baby rabbits with other nursing “mothers”.

As for special breeding conditions, there are none. Over many years of growing and selecting Blue rabbits in Russia, this breed has acclimatized well and today produces strong early offspring with high survival rates even at low temperatures. Animals can be raised in shed housing, outdoor housing, and also in regular rabbitries. When raising rabbits, it is important to keep the cages clean to maintain high quality fur. Rabbit hutches should be dry and clean.

Photo gallery

Cute blue rabbits

Female Vienna Blue breed

Male with beautiful fur

Video " Seminar on rabbit breeding. Examination of Vienna Blue»

Do you want to choose a purebred representative of the breed for your farm, but don’t know how? This video will help you learn how to check an animal and what standards it must meet.

“Just look at the story with rabbits... They were brought to Australia in 1859 for the best purposes: to breed and eat. The rabbits escaped and began to reproduce at an incredible rate. Soon, in just over 50 years, cute lop-eared creatures occupied the entire south of the continent.

Biologists say thoughtfully that they had no natural enemies in Australia. Children's question: are there no predators in Australia? The same childish answer: of course there is. Trying to breed new species is generally a very difficult task, because local predators instantly realize that they have a new source of tasty food, and begin to closely communicate with the newcomers. But Australian predators catch rabbits poorly... Rabbits are too active, fast and smart for them. Too elusive prey. And for rabbits, local predators are clumsy and dull. (God! Rabbits are smart?!! But where have you seen this? They really are much more agile and breed very actively, which is almost nonsense for marsupials. Besides, there weren’t so many of them - such marsupial predators as to exterminate all this mass of rabbits They didn’t have time to be born, and that’s why the Rabbits didn’t grow exponentially.)

Where rabbits settled, several species of kangaroo became extinct before 1900. Why?! Yes, because the rabbits could feed on sparse pastures. The kangaroos didn't have enough food, but the rabbits had plenty. Fertile pastures began to turn into deserts, the residents of Western Australia began to take action: they decided to fence off the west of the continent with a fence.

Rabbit-proof fence No. 1 was built by 400 men from 1901 to 1907. It turned out to be 3253 km long. The wire and mesh fencing strung between wooden posts made it impossible for the rabbits to jump over. “But” they could perfectly dig passages under it. And then they began to patrol Fence No. 1: they laid a dirt road along it and began to ride along it in gigs pulled by camels. The patrolman saw the rabbit and opened fire. When a patrolman saw a hole, he immediately buried it, brought it down, and destroyed it in any way possible.

Soon camels began to be replaced by cars: they drove them along the wall. And the camels... were released. History repeated itself, and camels competed with Australian animals no worse than rabbits. When up to 200 camels began to gather near each well, the Australians again sounded the alarm. Where such a herd passed, there were no kangaroos or vegetation left. And kangaroos, although they move quickly, cannot stand it for long. The camels devour everything - and move on to areas they have not yet gnawed. And kangaroos die from lack of food. The rabbits, however, remain.

The Australians began shooting camels from helicopters. That's how they still shoot. Only camels are smart, they have a large, complex brain. They began to run away as soon as they heard the noise of the engine, and the helicopter was heard, depending on the conditions, 2 or 4 hours before its appearance. So the Australians are still chasing them. And along Fence No. 1, people drive cars to protect them from rabbits. (All animals hide from loud sounds, even fish.).”

Burovsky A.M., Brain phenomenon. Secrets of 100 billion neurons, M., “Yauza”; "Eksmo", 2010, p. 33-35.