From December 2009 to February 2010 Friends of Mount Majura, the Mount Ainslie Weeders and the Watson Woodland Working Group joined forces with members of the wider public to map rabbit warrens in the Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie nature reserves.

They volunteered 746.3 hours surveying an area of 1053.5 hectares (over 10 million square meters) and found 1105 rabbit warrens and burrows (1.05 warren/ha) scattered throughout the reserves (map pdf).  In addition to the field survey work, volunteers clocked up over 260 hours training with GPS, data processing and project coordination.

Staff of Parks, Conservation and Lands and contractors began work to control rabbits in the second half of February 2010.

I’d like to thank all volunteers for generously giving their time. Thank you also to the Molonglo Catchment Group, the North Canberra Community Council, and staff of Parks, Conservation and Lands for support with training, advice and resources to successfully accomplish the survey.

Waltraud Pix, Friends of Mount Majura coordinator (March 2010)

Photograph courtesy Dr. Brian Cooke

Update on the 2010 Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura Rabbit Control Program

Rabbit control work – Information for residents and nature park visitors

Documents for volunteers

Rabbit Signs – Photos of the impact caused by rabbits

The threat

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was deliberately released in Australia in the mid to late 1800s. Land degradation by rabbits is listed as a key threatening process under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. In 2008 the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts released a Threat Abatement Plan to address competition and land degradation by rabbits.

Rabbits pose a threat to a large number of native flora and fauna species. Their effect on fauna can be direct such as increasing competition for food or indirect such as denuding vegetation and thus exposing native fauna to increased predation. The loss of ground cover vegetation and the digging lead to erosion and to the spread of weeds not grazed by rabbits.

In the past years visitors to the north Canberra nature reserves noticed a significant increase in rabbit numbers. Volunteers who mapped the rabbit warrens in summer 2008/09 found an average of 1.9 rabbit warrens per hectare and an average of 2.5 warrens per hectare in the Majura horse paddocks, some with more than twenty entrances (view a report and a map with locations of rabbit warrens mapped in 2008/09).

The vast number of rabbits associated with the recorded warrens has a devastating impact on the endangered Yellow box Red gum grassy woodlands and the fauna that depend on the plants for food and shelter. At an assessment walk with Australia’s rabbit expert Dr. Brian Cooke of the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre at the University of Canberra, participants recognised the telling signs of rabbit presence such as buck heaps (male latrines), scratch marks, browsing lines, and rabbit specific damage to woody species. The most telling sign however was the lack of young native trees and shrubs and the loss of ground cover vegetation. Dr. Brian Cooke cited a study that showed that it takes only one rabbit per hectare to prevent regeneration of many native plant species.

It will take a continuous commitment of Government and community to keep the rabbits at a low level to halt and reverse the decline of our remnant woodlands so that future generations can enjoy what’s left of Australia’s unique wildlife.

Learn more

This document (1.3Mb) provides a summary of rabbit research and control in Australia.

For the latest research on rabbit control visit the Cooperative Research Centre website on Invasive Animals.