The ‘Bilbies not Bunnies’ slogan is a reminder of the harm rabbits cause and the need to control them if native plants and animals are to flourish.
- European wild rabbits changed Australian landscapes, removing vegetation and abetting soil erosion which was so widespread in the early 1900s that State governments introduced Soil Conservation legislation to combat it.
- The development of bio-controls (myxomatosis, rabbit fleas and calicivirus) helped land managers regain control and have directly contributed to improvements in land condition, productivity and biodiversity in the latter half of the 1900s.
- Yet rabbits persist, and even in very low numbers they change the structure of native vegetation, affecting the habit available to fauna and sustaining feral cats and foxes – and hence the predation of native animals.
Easter Bilby champions the cause of native plants and animals, reclaiming the Australian bush from European wild rabbits. Bilbies want their burrows, their food and their friends back.
See the Rabbit-Free Australia website for more information on Easter Bilby, the harm caused by rabbits, and how to control them – and how to help Rabbit-Free Australia be a catalyst for research to ensure rabbits do not rebound should the effectiveness of current bio-controls wane.
