Do you fondly imagine that Australia has overcome its “rabbit problem”?
This post’s 2023-vintage photo was taken recently in a “well-managed”, much-loved National Park.
Rabbit numbers can rise and fall with startling rapidity, but the relatively good news is that current estimates suggest that in recent years Australia’s wild/feral rabbit population has averaged circa 200 million individuals.
The estimated “peak” figure – reached a century or so ago – was around 10 billion!
In known human history the European rabbit in Australia is a prime contender for the title of “most successful/most environmentally devastating introduced mammal species ever, anywhere”.
Click here for much more about the (ongoing) story of rabbits in Australia, and of human attempts to combat them and to rehabilitate rabbit-ravaged environments.
Most of Australia used to be “rabbit-ravaged”; a significant portion still is.
The photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at 2.27 pm on 05 June 2023 near Wilpena, in South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.