Rabbit numbers

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Beagle boy

Well-Known Member
Good evening everyone
I’m from north west Leicestershire, and have noticed in the last 2 years or so on the ground that a shoot we really struggle for rabbit numbers.
There is a couple of dairy farms that have a few on, but nothing like there used to be 10ish years ago.
Even when I’ve been out with the lamp quite often I we more hares than rabbits.
I was thinking some of it maybe mixy, but I havnt seen any with mixy for a long time.
We have a lot of forestry planted 20ish year ago when a lot of dairy farms went under.
Has anyone around the East Midlands experienced the same? Or is it just local to me ?

Cheers Rob
 
Be nice to see them back again to be honest, hopefully it’s not an awful lot of time untill they bounce back.
I was watching a video of a guy shooting them up north somewhere a d it was crawling with them
 
Yeah you hear of this from quite a few people all over the country. We shoot / have shot a few places that used to have plenty of rabbits including a few golf courses. For a few years the numbers were fine but then they just rapidly decline and as has been said above, it is due to myxomatosis or RHDV. We used to get a population rise every 7ish years (I don't know why) but since the RHDV has set in there are a few places where they struggle to come back.

Saying that, my brother picked up an area not far away from him recently and you were shooting 30 - 40 a night.
 
I shoot in south Scotland along the borders, and in my entire time Ive been out foxing at night Ive never seen any Rabbits, but I do see loads of Hares. Im also primarily shooting on dairy farm fields like yourself, only thing I can say is that the gamekeeper Ive been out with has said that in the last five or so years the rabbit numbers have tanked, so its been like that for a while.
 
After seeing a decline the last 2-3 years we are now seeing a small increase in numbers. i have not shot any for getting on for 2 years now, i was out last week and counted about 10 where years before the number would have been 30 or 40 easily.
 
Still some good areas of quality rabbits about in all honesty unless it’s a clearance job have a tendency to just take enough, but some areas post VHD2 are still struggling to show any,
 
ChrisWill184 said:
Yeah you hear of this from quite a few people all over the country. We shoot / have shot a few places that used to have plenty of rabbits including a few golf courses. For a few years the numbers were fine but then they just rapidly decline and as has been said above, it is due to myxomatosis or RHDV. We used to get a population rise every 7ish years (I don't know why) but since the RHDV has set in there are a few places where they struggle to come back.

Saying that, my brother picked up an area not far away from him recently and you were shooting 30 - 40 a night.
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I thought I saw some decent signs last year in spring. Lots of nest holes popping up, saw a few before the barley got up. Then absolutely nothing after that.
When I was younger I shot some paddocks with an air rifle and I’d regularly come back with half a dozen. I’ve not seen one on there for years now
 
i have a farm i shoot rabbits on and have done for the last 2 years and there's thousands, on a night with my thermal there is probably 50-70 on each field, probably 19-20 fields all between 7acres to 20 acres, and there breading like wildfire, im going out 2 evenings a week, for 2-3 hours a time and shooting from 20 - 50, :)
 
Tikkat1x said:
i have a farm i shoot rabbits on and have done for the last 2 years and there's thousands, on a night with my thermal there is probably 50-70 on each field, probably 19-20 fields all between 7acres to 20 acres, and there breading like wildfire, im going out 2 evenings a week, for 2-3 hours a time and shooting from 20 - 50, :)
Click to expand...
Your a lucky man
Fancy sending some down this way 😂
 
Beagle boy said:
Your a lucky man
Fancy sending some down this way 😂
Click to expand...
if i could, i would, i already feel like im not doing enough to rid the land of them, but for me i would rather take it easy as to not end up with none about,
not seen any mixy either, not for a good few years round here, and not to rub it in but iv just turned a request down from a farmer a few mile away whos also over run with them, i just didnt have the time to commit, i did go for a look around with him, and there all over the shop, i went a couple of times till i realised i didnt have the time,
 
Around the chicken sheds there's a steady 110 / 130 and has been for year's.
Every so often I do a head count with the thermal when I'm in the fox box.
I never shoot them as they are a diversion and early warning system for any foxes.

On the other side of the farm which is beef, I was surprised to see a rabbit explosion had taken place during the year. Done a quick scan and head count and that showed 67, which is 37 more than normal.

There has also been an explosion of rat's. I shot about 70 around the yard in a 3 hour session last week.

Obviously the hot summer paid dividends for the rabbits and rat's
 
Rabbits...a protected species where I am....well unofficially anyway. All were eliminated by Calici virus some 5 years ago. Since then I haven't seen any sign of them let alone a live bunny.
 
Good numbers exist in isolated pockets over here….. If they are plentiful I’ll drop a few for bait. I never pick off the odd ones and twos that you see in other areas… I leave them to do what rabbits are supposed to do best …breed. Hopefully that simple actions helps their numbers spread…..
 
East Anglia here, and on the ~1,000 acres of arable land over which l stalk l see 100 deer for every rabbit.

I’d love to have the chance to put a few in the freezer, but they’re like rocking horse [poo] from China in this area.

maximus otter
 
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