View Full Version : Rabbits an agricultural pest in Scotland?
A few times before on BCUK I read about rabbits being an agricultural pest in Scotland. Now, I have not done any research, but like to know if this is really true.
What is the kind of damage that they do mainly? Are rabbits plentiful/too much all over Scotland, or just in area's?
Might "agricultural pest" also be a word that is used by the ones that are looking for an excuse for catching a few rabbits?
I am curious what ppl. have to say.
thanks
gregorach
26-08-2008, 12:59
There's certainly lots of them, but I'm not entirely sure what damage they cause... Although I have nearly broken a leg in their burrows once or twice.
There`s quite an interesting article from the FC here ....
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcpn2.pdf/$FILE/fcpn2.pdf
I wasn`t aware that they are now becoming immune to mixy, quite chuffed to hear it actually as it`s a horrid sight to see.
Rich
slowworm
26-08-2008, 13:09
I don't know if Scotland is any different to the rest of the UK but in England they are still seen as a pest. Where I live you can see quite a bit of damage on arable fields where the rabbits have eaten the wheat etc in fields and if you don't protect young trees the rabbits will eat the bark and kill them.
Blighty has been declared a 'rabbit free zone' (more of an aspiration of course!) for some time. Land owners are under legal obligation to control numbers on their plot and in theory the authorities can send in a contractor to do the job and send the bill on.
demographic
26-08-2008, 22:31
Err, rabbits and a non indigenous species to the UK and are a pest all over.
Blighty has been declared a 'rabbit free zone' (more of an aspiration of course!) for some time. Land owners are under legal obligation to control numbers on their plot and in theory the authorities can send in a contractor to do the job and send the bill on.
This seems strange, I'm not doubting you but the steel works in Scunthorpe is full of them. There is a bank at the front that overlooks the main road and there isn't a square yard that doesn't have a handful of rabbits sat on it. It goes on for about 200 metres!
Why haven't they been ordered to clean up? Because it is some sort of ecology experiment, or conservation or something like that! They wouldn't let me shoot them, but it wouldn't have been a challenge. You wouldn't even need to aim as there are that many of them.
This seems strange, I'm not doubting you but the steel works in Scunthorpe is full of them. There is a bank at the front that overlooks the main road and there isn't a square yard that doesn't have a handful of rabbits sat on it. It goes on for about 200 metres!
Why haven't they been ordered to clean up? Because it is some sort of ecology experiment, or conservation or something like that! They wouldn't let me shoot them, but it wouldn't have been a challenge. You wouldn't even need to aim as there are that many of them.
A cluster bomb perhaps ?? Could take the whole colony out
Silverback
27-08-2008, 08:59
Blighty has been declared a 'rabbit free zone' (more of an aspiration of course!) for some time. Land owners are under legal obligation to control numbers on their plot and in theory the authorities can send in a contractor to do the job and send the bill on.Lurch is correct although I can't recall a single instance where I have heard of this being enforced. People automatically think of cereal crop damage when associating the rabbit as a pest but I would say that most of the damage they do is on pasture where they compete with sheep, horses and cattle for grazing - as a rule of thumb five rabbits eat the equivalent in grass to one sheep, so a heavy infestation can pose a fairly serious threat. In terms of crop damage, rabbits by nature are perimeter feeders so do most of their damage to crop edges but they are often blamed for damage that is actually caused by slugs or poor drainage. I shoot around 1000 a year and 80% are taken from pasture and 20% from planted crop. I was called in to take care of a serious problem on one small piece of pasture totalling no more than 1.5 acres - I shot over 250 rabbits in three outings :eek:
And what might you want your England back from Silverback?
The area around perthshire is quite bad for rabits, including crop damage and eating their weight in grass that other farm animals would their burrowing causes a lot of damage.
Some the the embankments being completley eaten away by rabbit burrowing, I remmber about 10 years ago when I stayed there that the railway had a fall out with the land owner about the ammount of rabbits burrowing under the railway embankment and weakening the structure.
The argument was due to the fact the rich foreign land ownder did no work to farm the land or control the rabbit population, and any attempts by the railway to kill the rabbits was invain as 10feet over the fence was a rabbit army unhindered.
Silverback
27-08-2008, 09:29
And what might you want your England back from Silverback?The idiots that seem hellbent on wiping out what it once meant to be an Englishman - that is all the answer you are going to get from me so please allow the thread to stay on topic :nono:
slowworm
27-08-2008, 09:41
I know they do a large amount of damage on grazing land but the cereal damage is so easy to see so more instantly noticeable.
As for land owners being under legal obligation to control I think action is only taken if someone complains. I know a few instances where this has been done but does seem very rare as rabbits are so common.
Now if eating wild rabbit became trendy many of the problems would be solved.
Silverback
27-08-2008, 09:57
I know they do a large amount of damage on grazing land but the cereal damage is so easy to see so more instantly noticeable.
As for land owners being under legal obligation to control I think action is only taken if someone complains. I know a few instances where this has been done but does seem very rare as rabbits are so common.
Now if eating wild rabbit became trendy many of the problems would be solved.Rabbit is slowly working its way back onto the table thanks to the likes of Marco Pierre White, Hugh F W and Gordon Ramsay. In wartime when rationing was enforced, Rabbit was used extensively as a substitute for chicken and many people I have spoken to who lived through those incredibly tough times tell me that it is for that very reason that they cannot bring themselves to eat it :( . IMHO the true culinary masters with rabbit are the Italians :)
demographic
27-08-2008, 10:04
people I have spoken to who lived through those incredibly tough times tell me that it is for that very reason that they cannot bring themselves to eat it :( .
Well that and most women wouldn't want to admit to being a bunny boiler either:)
slowworm
27-08-2008, 11:07
Rabbit is slowly working its way back onto the table thanks to the likes of Marco Pierre White, Hugh F W and Gordon Ramsay. In wartime when rationing was enforced, Rabbit was used extensively as a substitute for chicken and many people I have spoken to who lived through those incredibly tough times tell me that it is for that very reason that they cannot bring themselves to eat it :( . IMHO the true culinary masters with rabbit are the Italians :)
It might slowly becoming popular but sadly it's still a long way off from the average battery farmed meat eater eating it. I think it's one of the best tasting meats there is and it's a shame I can't get my hands on some more at the moment.
Silverback
27-08-2008, 11:33
Where are you from Sloworm we could come to some sort of 'arrangement' ;). I have sent frozen wild bunnies prepped and jointed through the post before :)
I understand that they also provide a threat to larger animals when they burrow in pasture; horse breaks its leg in a rabbit hole, it's time for a trip to the glue factory.
Silverback
27-08-2008, 12:28
I understand that they also provide a threat to larger animals when they burrow in pasture; horse breaks its leg in a rabbit hole, it's time for a trip to the glue factory.Presumably to get the leg glued back on :lmao: ;)
blueprint
27-08-2008, 15:47
i live on orkney and they are a real problem here, my dad shoots them for our cats, but it's drop in the ocean, there are thousands, and hares, but we and the locals never shoot them
It "looks" like they are everywhere in the UK. It might not be a farmers dream come true, but good thing for the bushcrafter that likes to have a go at snaring. I am definitely coming to get some :). I will use almost everything of what I catch.
Everyone seems to agree on this matter, nice :). I don't have to feel like being a nature-criminal that takes some of the last rabbits around.
thanks all!
Hares are different to rabbits though.
Once upon a time rabbits were food for the wealthy. They were imported by rich landowners who built warrens for them and kept them enclosed. They were bred to be eaten.
As the rabbits adapted to the miserable British weather and conditions they started to escape and breed outside of the warrens. Rabbits also became so plentiful that they were no longer a novelty of the wealthy and became too common so they went out of fashion. As the interest in breeding them declined they also managed to escape into the countryside in large numbers.
To feed themselves they ate crops and soon became a pest as they breed rapidly and they have a huge appetite. Some bright spark in Australia thought that introducing the disease myxomatosis would be a good idea as the rabbit problem was out of control there. The disease apparently went to France illegally and soon spread across Europe and eventually arrived in the UK. Apparently it wiped out around 95% of the UK's rabbit population.
Although rabbit is quite tasty and it is similar to chicken there are health hazards associated with them. One is Tularemia or Rabbit Fever which can be passed to humans (it's not known to be a problem in the UK AFAIK). It is recommended to wear rubber gloves while skinning rabbits if you are in an area where this disease is known to be around. The meat should be cooked thoroughly.
Another problem is "rabbit starvation", which is only a problem if rabbit is all you have in your diet. It is caused because the meat is too lean, you will start to suffer and eventually if you don't get fats from other sources you will die.
Jews and Muslims consider rabbit meat to be unclean and won't eat it.
AFAIK eating a rabbit infected with myxomatosis isn't a problem for humans but it's not something that is desirable and I think this is one of the reasons rabbit meat remains unpopular; apart from the fact that we are a nation of animal lovers who think that bunnies are cute and adorable so we shouldn't eat them. :rolleyes:
woodstock
27-08-2008, 22:24
I read somewhere that 4 rabbits can consume the same amount of grass as one sheep if there is any truth in that you can see why farmers hate them so much, I love the taste of rabbit, at the moment my favourite meat is squirrel
slowworm
28-08-2008, 08:00
Where are you from Sloworm we could come to some sort of 'arrangement' ;). I have sent frozen wild bunnies prepped and jointed through the post before :)
Surrey at the moment although hope to move soon. I've caught and prepped my own in the past and it shouldn't be too difficult to find somewhere locally if I had the time, thanks for the kind offer though.
One thing to add about there numbers, as I often look for signs of rabbits when house hunting sometimes areas seem strangely free from them so not all areas will have them, there seems to be patches all over the place that's free and other patches close by that's full of them.