BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?

Subject: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:19 AM

The green verges of the country roads around Cambs/E.Anglia used to be full of rabbits at any time of year. Driving around this morning, it occurred to me that it seems to be years since I last saw any.

Anyone know what has happened to them? Is it just round here or further afield?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:26 AM

Plenty here in N Yorks. Oddest place is a whole colony of them on a roundabout just outside Skipton!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:31 AM

Er What's up Doc?

Several possible reason Michael. Firstly RVHD Rabbit Viral Haemorrhagic Disease could have cut the population, secondly myxomatosis a dreadful disease and thirdly guns. Put these together with the time of year and the likelihood of seeing a rabbit will drop significantly.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:47 AM

They're all in my bloody garden. They are a menace. I'll cheerfully take any or all Raggytash's remedies. Or maybe pray for a hard winter. They are aliens in Britain and they haven't got enough enemies. They've even given up running away when we walk close to them.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:29 AM

There used to be an idiotic American commercial in which a fellow walks out into the sunny morning garden eating his bowl of some sort of Kellogs or General Mills cereal and smiles benignly at the bunny hopping around amongst the lettuce in his garden. In reality, a real gardener would go apeshit about then. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:34 AM

There is a nice bit one of Gervase Phinn's books where he introduces "Peter Rabbit" to his class of rural Yorkshire kids and finds they all sympathize with Mr McGregor.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:36 AM

Steve, have you seen myxomatosis? I wouldn't wish it on any creature. A Shotgun or rifle is quick as least. I used to go rabbiting with my cousins Jack Russell in the mid 60's when there was an outbreak of myxomatosis, a terrible thing to see. The only humane thing to do was to despatch the poor little buggers quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 07:42 AM

Yes Raggy --, but re time of year, I pointed out that it was months if not years since I've seen any. I well remember the big myxamotosis outbreak of the 1950s. Mouldering rabbit corpses lay everywhere. No corpses this time tho; so I don't find your suggestion of decimatory epidemics will quite meet the situation of this odd leporine vacuum. Especially as it seems to be a local rather than a widespread phenomenon.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 09:18 AM

I hadn't noticed but thinking about it there have been less around this year. The spread of large birds of prey is probably also a factor. A red kite wouldn't take one but would probably frighten them back underground and buzzards are now common over large areas where they weren't normally seen a few years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 09:58 AM

Most buzzards around here spend most of their time eating worms. Useless buggers they are. Great to see though. Most rabbits are resistant to myxomatosis. I see rabbits by the score every day around here but I haven't seen a single one with myxomatosis for years. I do find it extremely hard to sympathise with the little bastards. I'm with those Yorkshire kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: JennieG
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 10:31 AM

The little bastards emigrated to Australia in the mid-1850s.

That's where the bunnies are.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Git Parker
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 10:48 AM

The main factor in keeping rabbit numbers low in many areas is the

spread of the Polecat.

You know they have colonized when dead 'brown' ferrets appear as

roadkill.

They prevent the major warrens re-establishing after disease as they

can kill the survivors in the buries - stoats are not large enough to

do this.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:03 AM

There's one keeps getting into the veg garden despite the chicken wire. I think evolution is creating higher jumping rabbits.

I did see the weasel this morning perhaps he will scare them off.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:24 AM

I have noticed a lot more rabbit recipes among the trendy television foodies - could there be a connection?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Janie
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:34 AM

I think rabbits tend to go through population cycles in any particular locale. In the USA, in most places, cottontail rabbits tend to go through a cycle approximately every 10 years. I've read the same is true for snowshoe and jack rabbits.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 11:53 AM

You can't see them any more whilst driving?

Cataracts?

Just a thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Git Parker
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 12:09 PM

'Rabbits' in the USA are related to 'Hares' in Europe which are solitary species . European Rabbits live in colonies and can achieve high densities - they are a different species.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 12:15 PM

Hares are larger than most wild rabbits, their ears are shorter, and their gait is less bouncy. It's not hard to tell the difference. Like Europe, North America (a large place) has plenty of species of both critters.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Git Parker
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 12:34 PM

Europe has one rabbit species and one common hare species with four related but restricted species (plus one intro)
Europe does not have the cottontails and jackrabbits of the USA

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 01:46 PM

They are not rare in Kent. But they are delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 02:02 PM

Playboy clubs have about died out, so there are maybe just a few of those bunnies left in London, Macau, or India.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST, ^*^
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 02:35 PM

The Americans also have the rare but charismatic megafauna jackaloupe.

Another view.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:11 PM

In Alaska,also, Janie, rabbits/hares go through boom and bust cycles.

In Juneau, there is a still currently-localized plague of them. Domestic rabbits appear to have been released into the wild some years ago and now homeowners in that vicinity lose their gardens to them.

There ain't nuthin' dumber than humans; all across the country/world? we have lakes with non-native predatory fish in them, exotic snakes that don't belong in their new habitats, animals of all stripes that have adapted and thrive in their new climates and conditions. All released by people who no longer wanted their 'pets'.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 16 Nov 15 - 05:11 PM

No shortage at all of bunnies round here (Abergavenny, Wales). Despite our cat's best efforts to curb their proliferation ... he brings them in whole, in bits and sometimes still alive and kicking. We still see them out on the lane, in the fields and on the drive. We also have an abundance of shrews, voles, mice and moles, and a wide range of birds from wrens to ravens and the occasional red kite. The cat has been challenged by the ravens and the red kite but we've had a living magpie brought in.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 03:02 AM

If they all go, then Mick Hucknall from Simply Red won't have a love life any more.

He was holding back the ears but the bunny's too tight to mention.





Been waiting years for a chance to mangle that into a thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 06:59 AM

mike                                                                                                                                              Where have all the bunnies gone


there must be a song about that

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 02:34 PM

Where have all the Bunnies gone
long time passing
where have all the Bunnies gone
long time ago
where have all the Bunnies gone
into stew-pots everyone
when will they ever learn
when will they ever learn

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 02:41 PM

Yes, but where have all the stew-pots gone?

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 15 - 03:04 PM

My back yard is full of the critters. We only have cotton tails here. I watch them all the time

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 01:15 PM

There may still be many around Richard's bit of Kent, but the ones who kept the grass down on the verges of Gorse Hill (once Death Hill) near Brands Hatch haven't been around for a couple of years. Nor the ones along Scratchers Lane at the back of Brands Hatch. I've seen one or two, but seldom.

I have seen a mustelid of unknown sort, too small for a badger, too large for stoat or weasel crossing the road, possibly escaped ferret, as there are no reports of polecats in the vicinity.

The local butcher has only farmed rabbit, and I haven't seen any in the butchers at Polhill Garden centre, either. I fancy some stew. (Must fish out the one in the freezer - haven't liked to eat it while I couldn't find a replacement.)

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 01:20 PM

Where have all the California Chinook salmon gone.

Drought management emptied reservoirs of all the cool water to go to farmers reducing the young by 90% and threatening extinction.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 01:48 PM

Has anyone got a tip for getting rid of the horrible pissy smell you often get when cooking wild rabbit?
I used to boil them and then fry the pieces - now they are so uncommon
even as roadkill - and supermarket chicken is SO cheap.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 02:56 PM

Stewpot I think got a job as a BBC Radio 2 disc-jockey

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 06:00 PM

The stew pots have gone to antiques shops every one.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Nov 15 - 06:30 PM

"Has anyone got a tip for getting rid of the horrible pissy smell you often get when cooking wild rabbit?"

Simple. Drink American beer when you eat the dish. The pissy taste and smell of the beer will easily overpower the rabbit smell.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 02:05 AM

Eat asparagus and overcome it with a source closer to home.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 05:31 AM

Penny:
Do you have mink in your area? Could be your mystery animal.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 03:26 PM

I don't think it was a mink, unless a fancy colour escapee. And I think it wasn't slinky enough. I did contact some mammal group, and they hadn't any reports of mink in the area - which doesn't have water courses.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 15 - 05:15 PM

Could have been a Polecat.   There are a few reports from The Weald.
Even the 'pure' Polecats (ie in Wales) have some ferret blood now

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 20 Nov 15 - 02:31 PM

In the Midwestern US we also have the cycles of more-or- fewer bunnies. Local bunnies are cottontails. Sighted only a few this year . Couple years back I joked about making hassenpfeffer for a crowd, with a dozen or more daily carousing in the morning dew outside my back door. Now we have deer instead, who do much more garden damage, and following them to relocation in the suburbs are coyotes, who no doubt have contributed to the dearth of bunnies.

How odd that the damn deer make me nostalgic for bunnies.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:27 AM

And now, once again, spring is sprung, the grass is riz ···

···& once again, to continue but adapt slightly Mr Ogden Nash's query,

I WONDER WHERE THE RABBITS IS!

Still not a sighting of a single one for years [literally] now, whereas they used to teem on all the verges hereabouts.

Anyone seen any? Is this a purely local [N Cambs Fenland] phenomenon; or have they gone awol elsewhere? nationwide?

✍✍✍-up if you have seen any lately...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:33 AM

Plenty in Rossendale. Counted eight looking out of the window the other day.
There may be fewer rabbits now though as I could also see two foxes basking in the sunshine two fields away.
I did catch one in the garden last week and gave him a free transportation to another field! I keep trying to rabbit proof the garden but they keep finding new ways to get in.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:38 AM

Oh Michael we've got hundreds here in Norfolk. At a local crematorium, they were nibbling away all the shrubs and flowers, so recently a chap was paid to sit there all night and shoot them.

We see dozens of tiny baby rabbits dicing with death on the grass verges, and sadly some squashed ones on the road. I bet the foxes are having a feast.

Speaking of foxes, do you suppose they've increased in numbers, and are gobbling up the rabbits in vast quantities?

We always look for an albino rabbit that lives in a huge warren near a main road. We saw it last week. Amazing that a fox hasn't picked it off by now, as it's very conspicuous.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 04:50 AM

Thanx 2U both for swift response..

But, then, where the hell have all ours gone to!?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Fossil
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 05:52 AM

Where have all the antique shops gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the antique shops gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the antique shops gone?

gone on eBay, every one!

When will they ever learn.... etc

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 06:04 AM

LoL


But who's going to sell bunni·rabbitz on e-Bay!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 07:16 AM

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Selling-live-rabbits-on-eBay/td-p/24983925

here in Australia rabbits are a major agricultural pest, but pet rabbits ere popular.

One of my friends was horrified to inherit a bunny from her mother's estate - cries of what am I going to do with a rabbit? But it looked at her with it's cute little bunny eyes & twitched it's little bunny nose, & now she is owned by several (unrelated) rabbits & helps rescue abandoned rabbits & creates small saleable items for a charity that re-homes abandoned rabbits!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 07:18 AM

Plagues of rabbits here. They've virtually wrecked my garden over the winter. Them and the bloody mole in my front lawn. And the bloody roe deer have eaten my purple sprouting. Squirrels eat my bird food and the bloody blue tits wreck my putty. Bastards.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 08:07 AM

Nature's a bitch, eh?

Plenty of rabbits down here in West Sussex. Time to get the gas pistol out methinks...

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 10:02 AM

Hundreds in East London! They're all up and down the Northern Outfall Sewer embankment. Plenty of other wildlife too, foxes, squirrels, rats, magpies, crows, cormorants, herons and any amount of tits and finches - even wild parrots!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Apr 16 - 11:08 AM

I had a colleague who went shooting every weekend, and brought me his surplus game free of charge. I must have skinned and jointed dozens of rabbits, and plucked and drawn many pigeons and even pheasants. Absolutely delicious, and my cats loved to share it too. But I wonder how many folk nowadays could prepare game like that? I bet some of the younger people would pull a face and not know how to do it.

The prize at the Christmas Village Bingo used to be a brace of pheasants (always a male and a female, tied at the neck with string) I only once won it, and they were gorgeous.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 08:31 AM

You're so right, Eliza; preparing freshly killed birds and small game is a skill most city-dwellers never acquire -- and never want to.

A dear friend is so squeamish that she can't even bring herself to put her hand into the cavity of a supermarket turkey, and she's hardly unusual. I hate to think how such sensitive people would deal with the challenge of gently slitting the belly skin and identifying the various organs so as to avoid puncturing the gall bladder and intestines and thus contaminating the meat. Even skinning and jointing are tasks that require a rudimentary knowledge of anatomy and higher-order knife skills that are not typically found in people who prefer their meat to come in bite-sized pieces packaged in clingfilm and styrofoam.

I loves pheasants, I does, especially on a crouton with sautéed apples on the side.

Rabbits abound in Ottawa, and I frequently see them grazing on those grassy patches that lie within the cloverleaf turns of autoroute on- and off-ramps. That's good spot to see groundhogs (gophers) also. Early yesterday morning, I spotted a fox nipping across the on-ramp to the Queensway, heading for the grassy verge; clearly, I am not the only local observer of shy woodland creatures.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 09:27 AM

Ooooh Charmion, apple goes so well with pheasant doesn't it? I have a recipe for pheasant-and-apple casserole, with a drop of cider in.

Just after the war, most people kept a few chickens, and my mother used to kill, pluck and draw the older birds for the pot. I never felt squeamish, and enjoyed helping her. Pigeons are fiddly, but worth it.
You're correct, one has to be careful not to burst the intestines, but draw them out gently, or the meat is contaminated. Also, if the rabbit/bird has been shot, one has to get all the shot pellets out.

I think foxes have become incredibly successful over the past decade or so. They adapt well to urban living. Here, they root about in bins and, so I've heard, get a bit vicious with humans. But they control rats (and rabbits!) and mice.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Will Fly
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 09:34 AM

I remember being given a brace of pheasants by one of the (then) landlords in one of our village pubs. He'd been given them by one of the locals and put them in his larder. When he realised they hadn't been paunched, he offered them to me as he couldn't face doing the job!

I took 'em off him straightaway and got them home. Waved them in the face of Mrs. F and said "Look what I've got!" "Don't ask me to do anything with them!" came the response.

By this time, it wasn't feasible to pluck them, so I just pulled off skin and feathers in one lot. Rather than cut them open, I simply pulled them apart, got rid of guts and crop contents, cut off head and feet and stuck the joints in a large casserole. Added some red wine, leeks, shallots, herbs, etc.

Lovely! Madame didn't complain when handed a plate of casseroled pheasant with all the trimmings...

I think a lot of people who eat meat might benefit from dealing with the way animals are killed and prepared for eating. I used to wring the necks of chickens on a friend's smallholding when I was about 12 or so (it was a long time ago), and have never been squeamish about these things.

With apologies to the vegetarians on the forum!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 10:31 AM

You apologize to the feelings of those who rip a living thing from its bed or tear it wantonly from its mother, flay it, and shove it into a hot oven? Perhaps boil the poor creature as Henry VIII did poisoners, of which is written of one "He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead." Or frying them in oil in a brazen pan?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 03:39 PM

Clean and cut into serving-size pieces
1 RABBIT, 2 1/2 TO 3 LBS., READY TO COOK WEIGHT

Put rabbit pieces into a deep bowl and cover with a mixture of

3 CUPS RED WINE VINEGAR
3 CUPS WATER
1/2 CUP SUGAR
1 MEDIUM SIZE ONION, SLICED
2 CARROTS, WASHED, PARED AND CUT INTO PIECES
1 TABLESPOON SALT
1 TEASPOON PICKLING SPICES
1/4 TEASPOON PEPPER

Cover and put into refrigerator 2 to 3 days to marinate.

Turn rabbit pieces often.

Drain rabbit pieces, reserving marinade. Dry on absorbent paper.

Strain the marinade.

Coat rabbit pieces evenly by shaking two or three at a time in a plastic bag containing a mixture of

1/3 CUP ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
1 TEASPOON SALT
1/4 TEASPOON PEPPER

Heat in a Dutch oven or sauce pot

3 TABLESPOONS FAT

Add the rabbit pieces and brown slowly, turning to brown evenly. Remove from heat. Gradually add 2 cups of the marinade. Cover and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until meat is tender.

Pour into a screw-top jar 1/2 cup of the reserved marinade.

Sprinkle onto the liquid

1/4 CUP ALL PURPOSE FLOUR

Cover jar tightly and shake until mixture is well blended.

Slowly pour 1/2 of the mixture into cooking liquid, stirring constantly. Bring to boiling. Gradually add only what is needed of remaining mixture for consistency desired.

Bring to boiling after each addition. After final addition, cook 3 to 5 minutes.

Arrange the rabbit pieces on a serving platter. Pour some of the gravy over the rabbit and serve with the remaining gravy.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: gnu
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 06:37 PM

Are you a Fricasseeing rabbit? >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: gnu
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:09 PM

OOPS! Have you got a fricasseein' rabbit licence? My bad. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:27 PM

Hausenpfeiffer to you, gnu.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: olddude
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:29 PM

Up to my hippity hop with them this year, all over the back yard

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 03:30 AM

Has anyone seen that film Watership Down? With that song 'Bright Eyes'?
In spite of the fact that I've skinned many a rabbit, I can't watch that film without weeping, (daft old biddy) and when it gets to the song, I'm wringing out my hanky. My school hired Watership Down one year (it was legal then to show a video to a school) I stupidly told my class how soft I was about Bright Eyes. During the film they kept turning towards me and grinning. When the song started, no-one at all was looking at the screen, just enjoying watching Miss sobbing her heart out. Callous little buggers.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 12:35 PM

I agree with Joanne/CupofTea. We have more deer than rabbits here, and all the lovely Lyme-Disease-transmitting deer ticks that come with them. YUCK.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:03 PM

So it appears that this bunny-shortage which motivated this thread is a purely local phenomenon, confined to my area of Mid-N.Cambs. Wonder all the more ∴ why the rabbits that teemed around here 3 or 4 years since should so utterly have vanished, and wither they can possibly have gone!?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: DaveRo
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:15 PM

They used to be very common here around Tring in the Chilterns, but I saw just one last year and none the year before. I blame the red kites, which are now very numerous; it's rare not to see one in the sky, sometimes several. Another change us that there's now a lot of game birds being raised - and shot - hereabouts. It's almost become a poor-man's grouse moor! But I don't know how that would affect the rabbits.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 06:46 PM

We have bunnies a-plenty. We also have red kites, buzzards, magpies, and all manner of other birds of prey. And our cat, who brings in a few a week and maybe consumes others outside. Probably foxes, although we don't often see them, and stoats and weasels.
Can only suggest there might have been a major mixamotosis epidemic or something similar - or, like the bunnies in Watership Down, they got wind of some road or building development and moved elsewhere to avoid it?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Paul Reade
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 07:14 PM

Here in Burnley there are a couple of roundabouts right in the middle of town that are home to colonies of rabbits, who can often be seen grazing on a summer's evening.

There don't seem to be any roadkill corpses in the road, so maybe these streetwise urban bunnies have adapted to this environment.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: robomatic
Date: 10 May 16 - 01:07 PM

To CostcoG

Out in front of Dimond Ave. Costco a couple weeks ago some nice young people were selling off rabbits from a litter of attractive speckled bunnies. Ten dollars apiece. They were adament that they weren't going to sell to snake owners. Damn near bought one due to cuteness. But I need a mouser around the house.

"This land is made of mountains
This land is made of mud,
This land has lots of everything
For me and Elmer Fudd
This land has lots of trousers
This land has lots of mausers
And pussycats to eat them
When the sun goes down!"

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Thompson
Date: 10 May 16 - 05:06 PM

They are aliens in Britain?

The Normans brought them. If you're going to throw out the rabbits, you'd better throw out all the alien humans with Norman blood.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Penny S.
Date: 11 May 16 - 02:18 PM

When I moved here, but a few years ago, there were lots along the verges of Gorse Hill (aka Death Hill) and round the back of Brands Hatch, but the numbers tumbled - there are few young ones about now, but the state of the grass shows that they aren't back in numbers. I bought some meat at a farmers' market in Rochester (disappointed at the absence of heart, liver and kidney) and the dealer said that myxie had come back.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 May 16 - 02:26 PM

There's been a great increase in the numbers of hares here in Norfolk.
Out near the North Norfolk coast, we've seen lots, having boxing matches and running along in front of us on the paths through the fields.
Sadly, just yesterday we saw an obviously 'mixie' rabbit on the grass verge. Horrible disease.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 11 May 16 - 02:43 PM

Just this morning I was beginning to think that I had the rabbit problem solved by fencing in the garden all around with chicken wire up to 4' high.
Then I looked out the bedroom window to find a roe deer in the next field, which then casually jumped over a 5' fence as it traversed the hillside!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 May 16 - 07:14 PM

They havent got enough natural enemies, Thompson. That's what happens if you let an alien plant or animal get established. Rhododendron ponticum, the common one with mauve-purple flowers that you see everywhere, is beautiful for a month every year but is an absolute menace, smothering our native woodland flora, providing next to nothing for the native wildlife and harbouring a serious disease of our native oaks. Mink are beautiful animals, but they are not native and they have decimated the native water vole population. That's Ratty to me and you. Prickly Pears, aliens in Europe, grow like a plague all over the Mediterranean region, to the detriment of the native flora.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 May 16 - 10:29 PM

The bunny rabbits back home in Wisconsin were small and cute. Here in California we have jackrabbits. I understand they were named that because their big ears looked like those of a jackass. They're about twice the size of a Wisconsin bunny rabbit, but they don't damage my wife's garden as thoroughly as they devastated my mother's petunias in Wisconsin.
I thought the jackrabbits were hares, and the Wisconsin bunnies were true rabbits. I may be wrong.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 12 May 16 - 04:28 AM

Having once again found a rabbit in the garden this morning I believe that have started a evolution race, with a new breed of rabbit that can jump higher and higher being the outcome.

Has anyone read the Si-Fi short story "Omnival" about a new colony on a planet where nature evolves at an astounding rate?

In the end a humanoid type evolves and the colonists decide that it is time to make friends before they get out-evolved!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 13 May 16 - 04:09 PM

We went to see watership down all those years ago. I read the book too. I used one phrase in it as a song....trees in November .... I read two other Adams books and enjoyed them also. , the plague dogs , and shardik.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jun 18 - 11:07 PM

I just witnessed such a thing as I have never before seen in my life.

Still in the vicinity of Tucson, Arizona, on a resort in the foothills.
As I posted on another thread, the resort plantings are natural, but groomed within an inch of their lives. A garden really. Guest accommodations are no concentrated high-rise, but little buildings of one floor, scattered around the acreage.

As the sun went down tonight, I was on a lawn chair within a little courtyard surrounded by the "casitas." Watching the hawks and crows harass each other, listening to faraway coyotes (VERY high-pitched yipping), watching thin clouds move in over the previously clear blue sky. The courtyard has generous patches of ... oops ... green grass. Now, I wonder how natural THAT green grass is? Locally indigenous or not, there are these grassy places, and the grass is very green indeed.

And a pair of jackrabbits were simply too hungry
to wait for the humans to turn in for the night.

So the two jackrabbits, one larger and plumper than the other, headed for the lovely green grass and got busy grazing. Serious business, grazing. Very single-minded about it; people walking past on the sidewalks through the grass, and the jackrabbits didn't even budge.

And when no people were moving about, and I was VERY still on the lawn chair,
the dancing started.

BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE on all fours, straight up in the air. A little moving about so as not to get jumped on. I just have never seen the jackrabbits jump straight up in the air and back down where they were,
before, in that fashion.

And no, they did NOT do the dirty deed for which rabbits are infamous.

In the resort clubhouse, I told a staffperson what I had watched.
The rabbits are hungry, the staffperson confirmed, and this is when they come out to feed.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 03:03 AM

It's just been reported in our local paper that a young hare has been discovered in the grounds of Ennis Cathedral; (Ennis is our County Town)
The p.p. was so concerned for its welfare that he contacted the County Wild-Life Ranger, who has agreed to try to capture it and move it to a safer area.

Not so long ago Ennis was visitated by a herd of wild goats which had drifted into town from a disused medieval road on the outskirts, a once popular walking-place for townspeople until it was bisected by major road building.
The herd was so large that they became a traffic hazard and were finally rounded up and shipped off to safety to a county in the Midlands.

All this humanity makes a pleasant change from reading about the battle between Canute-like battle Donald Trump is having with local residents on the coast over whether he can alter the tidal pattern of the Atlantic by building a rock wall in the sea to protect his golf club.
The wildlife element there is that the effected land is inhabited by a rare breed of snails
Who says nothing ever happens in the countryside!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Iains
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 04:43 AM

"All this humanity makes a pleasant change from reading about the battle between Canute-like battle Donald Trump is having with local residents on the coast over whether he can alter the tidal pattern of the Atlantic by building a rock wall in the sea to protect his golf club"
Nothing like a bit of gross exaggeration!
I believe part of the argument revolved around natural circulation within the dune system. Not quite the same now, is it?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 06:10 AM

"I believe part of the argument revolved around natural circulation within the dune system."
Then you believe wrong - are you seriously suggesting that this ecological vandal has the slightest interest in West Clare ecology?
This is entirely about protecting a golf-club for the extremely wealthy by building a rock wall in the sea
Tides being what they are, this means they will be bushed either side of the affected area and flood adjacent farms and homes
The only defence Trump supporters have ever put up is the number of people employed by the club.
FACTS HERE
This battle has been taking place for over two decades, since the founder of the club, Greg Norman, attempted to deny access to one of the most picturesque beaches in these parts in order to make it accessible to residents at the hotel and and golfers
I suggest that, unless you come with real information you stop accusing someone who lives less than ten miles from the area in question of "gross exaggeration"
Get your facts right before you make such accusations - it really does help to make for clean air around these discussions.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 06:10 AM

"I believe part of the argument revolved around natural circulation within the dune system."
Then you believe wrong - are you seriously suggesting that this ecological vandal has the slightest interest in West Clare ecology?
This is entirely about protecting a golf-club for the extremely wealthy by building a rock wall in the sea
Tides being what they are, this means they will be bushed either side of the affected area and flood adjacent farms and homes
The only defence Trump supporters have ever put up is the number of people employed by the club.
FACTS HERE
This battle has been taking place for over two decades, since the founder of the club, Greg Norman, attempted to deny access to one of the most picturesque beaches in these parts in order to make it accessible to residents at the hotel and and golfers
I suggest that, unless you come with real information you stop accusing someone who lives less than ten miles from the area in question of "gross exaggeration"
Get your facts right before you make such accusations - it really does help to make for clean air around these discussions.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Iains
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 06:37 AM

I see you follow Goebell's reasoning. Repeat a lie often enough......
You are the one talking about Trump "can alter the tidal pattern of the Atlantic by building a rock wall in the sea to protect his golf club"
This is of course sheer nonsense, yet you repeat it.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 06:49 AM

Getting back to the rabbits, there are thousands of them on the cliff slopes between Beer and Branscombe in Devon. I've been running from Beer to Branscombe and back several evenings a week for the last 3-4 weeks and they're everywhere. Almost every field I enter has dozens of them grazing, and then running like crazy for the bramble hedges when they spot me.

They're all round Branscombe village too, in the allotments and gardens. I was really surprised not to see any rabbit dishes on the menu at the Mason's Arms when I stopped there the other night!

I don't see them on "the other side" between Beer and Seaton, though, which is much the same type of terrain.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 06:59 AM

THe most rabbits I have ever seen that used to surround the land adjacent to Stanstead Airport - hundreds of the buggers as far as the eye could see.
It is many years since we have been there so I doubt if they are still there
Hopefully, they were removed with the same humanity as they were in Ennis
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 07:07 AM

I've lived on the Cambs / Naarfook border (Cambs post code; West N. county council) for a decade, MGM. No shortage of buns in my garden, MGM! Unfortunately, bow hunting is illegal in this country (besides which I'm out of practice & have no blunts), or I'd add to my diet. :) One neighbour occasionally pots one & hands it to me (he'd eat it himself, but his missus is semi-veggie & disapproves). Come to think of it, I found a dead one outside my back door Sun morning. The jackdaws were very interested in it, the noisy buggers. 'Tweren't the neighbour, so I guess it must have been one of the local cats. Since I didn't know how / when it had been corpsed, I slung it into the field out front...

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 07:14 AM

"visitated" - I chuckled at that (I occasionally mangle words for the fun of it too!). Don't you dare bugger off, Jim, or we'll organise a disorderly mob to drag you back to be unburnt on a steak! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Senoufou
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 07:59 AM

Interested to read that you live near Branscombe, Rob. I was there in the early fifties, camping in a field with the Girl Guides (and several rather smelly and nosey sheep) I seem to remember there was a steep cliff path down to the shore, and some donkeys which carried our equipment (and us!)
We visited Beer and Seaton, and I was enchanted by the magical area (always was a country girl at heart)
Gosh, that was nearly seventy years ago!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 08:48 AM

One of the most poignant confrontations we have had with a rabbit was some years ago when, each evening, over a period of over a month, a young one appeared on or garden (not really a garden, just a nearly-controlled acre of field that used to be farmland), sat in the middle of it for about twenty minutes, then disappeared
This happened so regularly that you could set you clocks by it.
Eventually the visits stopped
We reckoned that its parents had been killed on one of the narrow roads, victims of our boy-racers (a regular occurrence, particularly with badgers)

We used to be horrified at the local coursing of hares; once popular around here but now (hopefully) dying out.
I was immunised against this barbarism as an apprentice, when a workmate on the Liverpool docks took me to a coursing at nearby Waterloo and I witnesses "a string" - a tug-of-war between two dogs over a live hare until they eventually tore it in half, while the audience made bets on how long it would take
The child-like screams gave me nightmares for years after

One of the great hazards here is, when, coming home late at night, you encounter a rabbit in the middle of the road which, instead of heading for the safety of the fields, will sprint in front of you
It took us nearly an hour to make a twenty minute journey one night because we were unable to pass one of these rather dim creatures.

One amusing occurrence happened when we had a flat in somewhat middle-class Putney in West London
Going to work early one morning I witnessed a youngish woman in dressing gown and curlers, rather tentatively trying to shoo a large, obviously domesticated rabbit from her front garden by waving a handkerchief at it
Her efforts where in vain: it continued to eat its way through her flowers      for as long I could hang around to watch the performance.

"visitated"
No point in having good words if you can't confabubulate them occasionally Raed.
I think I've abandoned the idea of leaving - thanks for your kind words.
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 08:52 AM

I think the OP's missing bunnies have emigrated to Canada, and are now living under our deck. Our next-door neighbour planted lettuces, bless him.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 08:53 AM

Senoufou, I don't live near Branscombe at all...I actually live in Kent, but the particular Department of my employer that I'm attached to has its offices in Axminster. I go there quite regularly, but recently have been going virtually every week, from early Tuesday to late Thursday or early Friday.

I have friends in Seaton, Colyton and Beer, who I've got to know well over the 7-8 years I've been regularly visiting. Mostly they're musicians, climbers or artists and I tend to spend evenings either at music events, kayaking off Seaton or running/ walking on those, as you say, steep cliff paths between Seaton and Weston. A couple of my better friends are away at the moment, so I'm doing more of the running/ weighted walking as I'm in training for a big endurance event in September.

The East Cliff path to Branscombe Mouth is very steep, as is the West Cliff path up from Branscombe Mouth towards Weston, so it's an ideal training ground. It's still a really lovely area. The water mill in Branscombe is still a working mill and both pubs do good beer and good food....unlike Beer! You'd expect a place called "Beer" to take a pride in supplying decent fermented brews, but the three pubs in Beer serve uniformly crap ales!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 09:04 AM

Good! :)

Hare coursing is an occasional problem in the Fens (only occasional, I hope, anyway). I've heard one or two stories from local farm workers of meeting a group out with greyhounds - "Oh, we're just out walking our dogs mate." A few minutes later, the dogs are off the leash, and two minutes later they're all told to piss off in no uncertain terms... It seems, as with a few things, to be a thing with the Traveller community, alas.

I've had the "rabbit in headlights" thing more once. Contrary to the popular saying, no they don't just sit there, but they are dim enough to just run straight away... for a little bit. Probably what you should have done is accelerated right up behind it, try to startle it into dodging sideways, if you see what I mean.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 09:19 AM

I assume that everyone os aware of Austarlia's 'Rabbit-proof fence' - surely the eight wonder of the world (as well as a very fine movie)
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jos
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 11:56 AM

If you have problems with rabbits or other animals in country roads at night, try dipping your headlights - animals get dazzled by the lights the same as people do, and they can't see where to go, so they stay where they are.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 12:24 PM

As noted, Jos, the issue wasn't with them staying still, it was with them being too stupid to go sideways! I can't speak for Jim, but I know when I've had it happen, I've not been on full beam...

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Jun 18 - 06:15 PM

I stand corrected. One of the resort staff set me straight.
What I saw were two of the local breed of cottontail rabbit.
Jackrabbits, I was reminded, have very different ears;
and after hearing a comparison description, the staffperson is right.
Jackrabbit ears are really attention-getting, in size and coloring.
These plump fellows had cute little bunny ears instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Jun 18 - 03:06 AM

Moving frrom a life in cities into a totally rural area, you have to adapt very quickly to become aware of wildlife; feral cats, fo instance
We always had cats - nobody has them here, certainly not indoors
During our first December here, we left the local bar one night and climbed into thee car
Pat was about to start up the engine (we have a deal - I drive into town for a drink - she drives home - it's always worked for us) - and was about to start up when she stopped and said she heard a peculiar noise.
We searched the car, and eventually got out and opened up the bonnet to find that a feral cat had climbed onto the engine for warmth
Could have been messy
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jun 18 - 04:10 AM

It's rare to see bunny rabbits here in California. We have lots of jackrabbits, which are much sturdier animals. I wonder if that's because we have lots of predators.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Jun 18 - 07:45 AM

" I wonder if that's because we have lots of predators."
Probably not Joe; it's more than likely because rabbits are too small to carry guns !!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 10:12 PM

Before leaving Tucson,
the night before, that is,
supper at one of the resort dining areas
resulted in meeting a bunch of new people/guests.

A nice lady using a walker, slowly and painfully leaning on that walker,
joined me at my table.
We had plenty to talk about, many subjects.

For obvious reasons, I allowed her to open up about her physical troubles;
she's a young woman to be so severely disabled.
So I heard a lot more about it than was palatable,
won't repeat all the squirmy details.

It's Lyme disease. She got a particular complicated version of it.
She'll endure it for the rest of her life.
I heard too much about ticks of course. Sigh.

Do rabbits carry those ticks as well?

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Jun 18 - 03:14 AM

Once upon a time there were two rabbits........
Now look how many there are!!

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Jun 18 - 03:18 AM

MISSED A BIT

Subject: RE: BS: Where have all the bunnies gone?
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Jul 19 - 11:55 AM

The bunnies are everywhere this summer!
Last night, the reddish-fox-colored cottontail was back.
This cottontail turns up behind my apartment building,
a well-cultivated bit of real estate,
with a grassy lawn and some flower plantings.

The cottontail first turned up a week ago, sniffing the flowers.
Now, with the lawn grass growing so rapidly
during this wet and rainy summer,
the cottontail is grazing on the lawn.

Hungrily, too!
I walked straight past the cottontail to get to my parked car,
as he was nibbling the grass right next to the parking lot,
as the sun was setting. The rabbit never budged,