05-09-2024, 02:47 AM
(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.
