rabbits in your area

ndt man

Well-Known Member
have members noticed a reduction in the rabbit population in ther areas?the two estates that i shoot have lost its rabbit populations and ( i mean no rabbits at all cant even find any lamping or by day .after mixi has been about we lose a lot but we still have a few this time none .will rabbits end up on the red list with the sparrow and starlin i dont know.
 
Have no rabbits within about five miles of me to the best of my knowledge, but have seen reduced numbers in other areas.
 
There has been a huge upsurge in numbers already this year. Last year despite myxi and VHD large numbers survived in most places yet there were a few farms where the numbers dropped to almost nothing. Not too sure why as some of the low density farms were next door to ones that have high numbers.
 
There was a new disease doing the rounds a while ago, it`s known by three letters. (They`ve escaped me)
It certainly does a number on them which could account for sudden drops in numbers.
 
With the last 2 years of heavy snow along with myxie certainly cleared a lot out. I suspect that a drop of shooting pressure and a mild winter along with an early spring could see a rise in numbers.
 
Very few where i shoot , i did see three young ones outside their burrow the other day but very few on the land overall
 
There has been a huge upsurge in numbers already this year. Last year despite myxi and VHD large numbers survived in most places yet there were a few farms where the numbers dropped to almost nothing. Not too sure why as some of the low density farms were next door to ones that have high numbers.
i think the farm i shoot over on dartmoor suffered from vhd, never saw a myxi rabbit, but almost over night they disappeared.
just tarting to make a comeback now after 3 years
cheers
richard
 
Most of the areas i shoot, ferret trap and gas over the numbers are fairly level with other years although i have noticed that in some ares of previous low rabbit activity there has been a huge explosion in numbers.
One particular area consisting of seven horse paddocks you would have been lucky to see a rabbit two years ago yet in the autumn last year i picked up over 150 headshot rabbits in just two short sessions.
This is a quick picture i took of the rabbits after gutting which were all shot in just the first field alone, we would normaly gut the bag at the end of the evening but with the numbers building up so quickly we had to do it every thirty or so to help them cool down more quickly.

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By the end of the evening we had managed to fill a plasterers bath right to the top and with game dealers paying about £1.35p for clean headshot rabbits it helps cover the diesal and amunition costs plus it keeps you in the land owners good books for a potential bit of future deer stalking (result)

Loaded into trays and off to the dealers
photo-4-2.jpg
 
No end to the perishing things. We trap,lamp,shoot the woods in jan feb and March , dig out the earths and still they come. The population has exploded around here in last 6 years. They are resistant to Myxie but not so far to .22 lr or 28gms no 6! Regularly lose whole fields of rape and suffer severe damage to winter wheat. Where do i get a phial of VHD.
 
We have only seen maybe 5 rabbits in 2 months of shooting both day and night (3 of which were popped of with the 22lr), it really is strange how the numbers have dropped off so rapidly in such a short space of time. 2 of the rabbits had mixi so the only way i can look at it is the extreme cold we had back in December forced them all underground for long periods and its just wiped them out :( such a shame as the land we shot always produced and now we are having to call in the foxes rather than putting a few rabbits in a corner and give a few minutes of squeaking to get them in!
 
Lifting with rabbits round here. Shot my first young one a month ago and there just seems to loads about. (here being N Yorks)
 
the same could be said for most things i think on some of my grounds i am teaming with rabbits others wiped out same with the pigeons i used to go out and shoot half decent bags on stubbles last 2 years virtually none its all down to pressure management i control the numbers of rabbits to keep farmers happy but dont over shoot i thought i was doing same with the pigeons i still have a good population of roe on all my farms but wouldnt take a poacher long to upset the balance
 
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