Wild rabbits: Pest controller says councils should be helping more

The responsibility and cost for rabbit control is on the landowner's shoulders. Photo / RNZ / Department of Conservation

By Sally Wenley of RNZ

It’s spring - and wild rabbits are doing what they excel at - breeding.

As well as busily munching and digging up orchards and farms.

That’s led to a call for local councils to step up and help manage their numbers.

Two common ways to control them are shooting and poisoning - with the responsibility and cost being on the landowner’s shoulders.

A pest controller who contracts with farmers south of Auckland said rabbit numbers were rising - and even though he only shoots a couple of nights a week he had killed nearly 5000 over the last three years.

The shooter, who didn’t want his name used, believed other pests got more attention from regional councils.

“The Councils should focus on rabbits as well as everything else.

“They seem to be fixated on possums and stoats and weasels and rats, which is fair enough.

“But rabbits - they don’t give a toot about really.”

He wants councils to be more proactive about preventing another rise in the rabbit population which could get out of control.

The pest controller said it was also frustrating for farmers when neighbouring lifestyle block owners go down the rabbit hole of thinking it’s cute to have lots of loitering free-range bunnies on their land.

“There’s a lady down the road who would have over 200 rabbits running around her place and either side of her the neighbours are complaining like hell because her rabbits are eating all their grass and causing holes.”

A wild rabbit doing what it does best - digging and making holes. Photo / RNZ / Department of Conservation

The rabbit shooter said in recent years he had taken more than six tonnes of rabbit carcasses to a pet food company for processing.

The Auckland Council said it was aware of farmers and lifestyle block owners disagreeing about rabbit control and there would be an opportunity to raise this later in the year.

Dr Imogen Bassett, Auckland Council’s Head of Natural Environment Specialist Service, said it was up to landowners to manage how they control pests on their own land.

“We acknowledge that it’s one thing to be controlling rabbits on your own property but if your neighbour is not then that can be a problem.

“So I would really encourage people to talk with your neighbours and think about something like maybe a community group might be a more effective way of tackling this in your local area.”

However, Bassett said a public consultation about Auckland’s future pest management priorities would run from Labour weekend through to the beginning of December and suggested landowners made submissions if they had a pest problem.

“I would encourage people - if this is something you see as a priority for the council to be involved with, then there is an upcoming opportunity that you will be hearing more about from us around submitting on what our future priorities should be as a region for the council to invest in in terms of pest management.”

She said the council would be getting in touch with Aucklanders so they could have their say.

Bassett said the council was currently more focused on preventing pests from entering the region, such as wallabies, which she described as “rabbits on steroids”, rather than reducing the number of existing wild rabbits.

Wild wallabies are a major pest problem in Central Otago and have spread to parts of the North Island, such as the Rotorua Lakes and the Bay of Plenty.

The Department of Conservation said if left unchecked, it’s estimated that wallabies could cause $84 million a year in damages and occupy one-third of the country by 2065.

The Ministry of Primary Industries declined to be interviewed, but in a statement said the control of rabbits was currently set by regional councils under their regional pest management plans.

It said this ensured that in regions where rabbits were prolific and damaging, regional authorities could tailor their approach to management.

Rabbit history in New Zealand

Rabbits were brought to New Zealand in the 1830s and released for both sport and food.

This led to plagues and the Department of Conservation said early attempts to control them were one of the country’s worst environmental disasters - the introduction of stoats, ferrets and weasels.

These natural enemies of rabbits rarely controlled rabbit numbers effectively but they have been disastrous for native species such as kiwis, takahe and kākāpō.

Government investments have been made historically to control rabbits through other means: trapping, shooting, poisoning, gassing, burrow-ripping, pathogens and dogs.

Myxomatosis was introduced in the early 1950s as a form of pathogenic control but, unlike Australia, it failed to establish through lack of a suitable spreading organism.

Rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) was introduced illegally in 1997.

This virus has since controlled rabbits naturally through annual knockdowns.

DoC said the country did not see the devastating rabbit populations of the past but very damaging increases do occur, and RHD was losing its potency.

Landowners, including the Crown, are currently responsible for controlling rabbits on their own land.

- RNZ