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+--- Thread: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats (/showthread.php?tid=23327)
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - terracore - 05-09-2024
(05-07-2024, 08:30 PM)Obie Wrote: The next problem coming up is rabbits.
While they are cute and cuddly, rabbits can also be a pest. In other places of the world, rabbits are notorious for their destruction of gardens, ranches, farms, and native habitats. Allowing rabbits to create a stable wild population can quickly escalate into a wide range of problems for Hawai‛i.
When rabbits were first introduced to Australia in the 1850s, they quickly spread across the entire continent. The first introduction started with only 13 rabbits, but today Australia has a population of over 200 million rabbits. They were the cause of the extinction of many ground-dwelling mammals and plants in Australia. Besides just destroying crops, rabbits ring trees and eat any seedlings trying to sprout, causing loss of vegetation and soil erosion.
While rabbits make cute pets, they become a huge nuisance when they are released into the wild. Since 2016, more and more rabbits are being sighted on Hawai‛i island – and we’re asking all of our residents to keep an eye out and report loose rabbit sightings.
Rabbits were introduced to this island hundreds of years ago, and are continuously re-introduced daily. While there is a state law that requires them to be kept in cages "off the ground" we all know that laws, and cages fail. So why isn't this island overrun by rabbits? There are small pockets of wild rabbits but they don't seem to be a problem. Here are some reasons why:
#1: Parasites. Rabbits are extremely susceptible to parasites and with no winter to kill them off, the parasites get stronger every year and the rabbits don't. The same goes for diseases. While a couple of one-off rabbits might survive the pestilence pressure, any amount of congregating passes the nasties back and forth and usually causes a mass die off.
#2: Heat and humidity. Domestic rabbits (the types that have been introduced) will die if exposed to direct sun in the tropics for just 20ish minutes. Sometimes less! Rabbits can't burrow through lava rock to find cool places to escape the sun and heat. Rabbits can't sweat and going underground is their only method of surviving the heat. Even if they can get underground in Hawaii, they frequently can't get deep/cool enough to survive, and even if they can, they can't get cool enough to thrive and do things like breed or raise litters.
#3: Predators. We've had over a dozen sheep killed in the last few years from dogs. Rabbits have an advantage (like they can hide under cars) but that is also a disadvantage because smaller animals like mongoose and cats can kill rabbits.
We raise and eat meat rabbits, and we've had the occasional one escape. They don't stray far from the caged rabbits and our dogs usually find and kill them in the first few hours. It is extremely rare that we've harvested one with a pellet gun. In 12+ years we've NEVER had an escaped rabbit that wasn't confirmed to be dead within 3 or 4 days.
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - Wao nahele wahine - 05-09-2024
I received an email from Mr. Dennison as well with the requested report.
One of the documents he also sent me the transcripts from video with Ray McGuire, Wildlife Biologist, DLNR Division Of Forestry And Wildlife (DOFAW); and Jordan Lerma, Field Biologist, Cascadia Research Collective
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - TomK - 05-09-2024
Any chance you could convert the Word file to another format such as a PDF? No disrespect meant it's just downloading an unknown Word file is a bit risky.
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - HiloJulie - 05-09-2024
Here you go Tom!
Hope this works!
[attachment=242]
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - TomK - 05-09-2024
Thank you!
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - Wao nahele wahine - 05-09-2024
(05-09-2024, 05:52 AM)TomK Wrote: Any chance you could convert the Word file to another format such as a PDF? No disrespect meant it's just downloading an unknown Word file is a bit risky.
No worries, Tom.
I was already offline for the night, so I'm glad HiloJulie converted the document to PDF for you and anyone else with concerns about downloading the Word file. Mahalo for that, HiloJulie.
I am currently on the mainland working on an inspection. We work 12 hour shifts, and I was obviously tired when I posted the document in that format.
Mr. Dennison also kindly attached several videos regarding the nene at Lili'uokalani Park. I'm sure he sent the same attachments to HiloJulie. If anyone is interested in seeing the videos, we can post them here.
RE: Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats - HiloJulie - 05-09-2024
I’m happy to post the videos!
Well links to them!
Enjoy!
https://vimeo.com/941421313?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/939640837?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/939401100?share=copy
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/s2c7sii7dki986js5rg7v/AIk9UDQ1hQMfrWUNtMc70BE?rlkey=dqr3sayse1yubnwdzfhvpeudj&e=1&st=7vf0kgnr&dl=0
https://nene.org/nene-update/nene-gosling-found-dead-at-liliuokalani-park/
These links all came from the DNLR.