An entertaining Blog by ecologist John Read reveals the dedication of researchers, sheds light on how rabbits sustain feral cats and foxes resulting in hyper-predation of native fauna, and shows how tricky it can be to understand why species are where they are. Follow the link to read John’s Blog, ‘Sharing the secret. Better than […]
A future climate with more heatwaves could leave rabbits more exposed to heat stress and predators – that’s one of the insights from a recent study at Arid Recovery’s wildlife reserve in South Australia. Monitoring collars were fitted to rabbits and bilbies in the reserve to record their location and activity, and the temperature and […]
The continuing ecological recovery of Macquarie Island demonstrates the effectiveness of starting at the bottom of the food web to generate landscape health. An initial focus on feral cats triggered a boom in rabbit and rat populations. Eliminating rabbits, rats and mice paved the way for predator removal and triggered a revival in vegetative habitat […]
The recent Rabbit R&D Update webinar was a source of great information on rabbits, bio-controls and the impact of rabbits on the environment, including sustaining feral predators. Materials from the webinar are now available: Presentations as PDFs: Brian Cooke, European rabbit fleas. Katherine Moseby, Rabbits & feral cats. Andreas Glanznig, Nationally coordinated rabbit biocontrol R&D. […]
Registration is now open for the 2023 Rabbit R&D Webinar, co-hosted by Rabbit-Free Australia and CISS (Centre for Invasive Species Solutions). This year the Webinar is looking at rabbits as part of bigger systems, with a focus on bio-controls (Dr Brian Cooke) and their role in ecosystems, including interactions with feral predators (A/Prof Katherine Moseby). […]
Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia is calling for the appointment of a national rabbit management coordinator and the development of a National Action Plan for rabbits. It is part of a policy statement released by the Foundation and circulated to parliamentarians around the country. More secure funding for rabbit control research is another of their priorities, […]
A strong social hierarchy (or ‘pecking order’) and territoriality help prevent inbreeding, giving species an adaptive advantage. Whether it be a dominant female stick-nest rat ruling the nest, or a dominant male rabbit ejecting young males from a warren and forcing them to settle in foreign territory, the result is the same. Genetic diversity, saving […]
The eradication of ‘every last rabbit, cat and fox’ provided the foundation for the reintroduction of native animals to Sturt National Park, in NW NSW. Two reserve areas, totaling 40 sq kms, are now supporting populations of greater bilbies, crest-tailed mulgara and Shark Bay bandicoots, after they disappeared from the area over 100 years ago. […]
Webinar presentations and references now available: all the latest rabbit research findings from CISS and Rabbit-Free Australia.
In a recent contribution to The Conversation, Associate Professor Katherine Moseby (UNSW) refers to rabbits, cats and foxes as an unholy trinity. Rabbits competed with native mammals for food and became food themselves for cats and foxes – inflating predator numbers and adding to the predation of native mammals. Katherine has over 25 years of […]