The rabbit is a declared Class 2 animal under the Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management Act) 2002. Rabbits are one of Australia’s major agricultural and environmental animal pests, costing the country between $600 million and $1 billion annually.
They compete with native animals, destroy the landscape and are a primary cause of soil erosion by preventing regeneration of native vegetation. Rabbits have played a role in the reduced numbers and extinction of many native animals by competing for food and burrow space.
In drought times, rabbits climb trees to forage on the foliage and often ringbark trees in their search for moisture. Rabbits affect the quantity and quality of pasture available for other animals.
Nutritious plants are selectively grazed, and in times of drought rabbits can consume the majority of the vegetation available. It is documented that the grazing ability of seven to ten rabbits is equivalent to one sheep.
Rabbit grazing and burrowing reduces vegetation and leads to soil erosion. The exposed bare soil is washed or blown away, making areas less productive. Soil that is washed away then builds up and causes increased silting of aquatic ecosystems.
Pet rabbits:
Introducing and selling rabbits in Queensland is not permitted (max. penalty $30 000). Limited numbers of permits for domestic rabbits are only available from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) for research purposes, public display, magic acts or circuses. Before a permit is granted, a number of guidelines need to be fulfilled.
Spread:
Domestic rabbits were originally brought to Australia with the First Fleet. Feral populations were first reported in southern Tasmania in 1827. Twenty-four wild rabbits were released on the mainland by Thomas Austin of ‘Barwon Park’, Victoria, in 1859.
Rabbits spread rapidly from ‘Barwon Park’ and another release centre near Adelaide (Kapunda) at rates of up to 100 km a year. Rabbits were first reported in south-western Queensland in the 1880s and their spread was assisted by humans as much as by natural migration.
Queensland reacted to the advancing wave of rabbits by introducing the Rabbit Nuisance Bill of 1878 and Act in 1880. Unfortunately, tenders for the construction of a rabbit-proof border fence were not passed until 1886, by which time rabbits were scattered from Wompah in the west to Mungindi in the east.
Rabbits have now spread throughout most of Queensland. Although numbers have contracted since the release of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV)—formerly known as rabbit calicivirus disease—high populations still exist in the Granite Belt and isolated regions throughout southern Queensland.
Habitat:
Rabbits are adaptable and sometimes live in close association with people. They live in built environments such as:
- in and under buildings
- old machinery and storage containers
- in old dumps.
In rural environments rabbits frequently live in:
- felled timber and associated windrows
- tussock grasses and rocky areas
- warrens (if soils are easy to dig).
Breeding:
Rabbits in mild environments are territorial throughout the year, but increase their social aggression during the breeding season. During the breeding season rabbits live in communities with well-defined social hierarchies or ‘pecking orders’.
Community boundaries are marked with faeces or an exudate from glands located under the chin. The dominant buck (male) mates with most does (females) within his territory, but dominant does can prevent breeding in subordinate does.
In drier areas, harsh conditions make finding food more important and reduce the strict territorial behaviour of rabbits.
Does are pregnant for 28-30 days, but are able to mate within hours of giving birth. The average litter is 3-4 kittens but varies from two in a young doe, up to eight or more in a mature doe, and depends on the amount and quality of food available.
Young does can breed at four months of age if conditions are suitable. Five to six litters are possible in a good season. This equates to 100 young per doe per year.
The litters produced are associated with the length of time young grass is present. In summer rainfall areas with high temperatures, fewer young are a result of less fertile males and poor pasture quality.
Rabbit warrens:
Rabbits prefer to live in warrens as protection against predators and extremes in temperature. However, they will survive in above-ground harbours such as logs, windrows and dense thickets of scrub (e.g. blackberry and lantana) or under built harbour, old sheds and machinery etc. In newly colonised areas without warrens, rabbits tend to live in ‘scrapes’ (or ‘squats’).
With warren protection, rabbits are able to produce up to 10 kittens per litter (compared with only four per litter when forced to breed in above-ground harbours). If a warren is available, the number of litters produced per year will also be larger than litters produced by rabbits breeding above ground.
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