From The Age, 28/12/12. Would amateur hunters persist if they only shot one
rabbit each for several months?
Battle of the bunny nears an end
By ANDREW DARBY
HOBART
FOR more thana year hunters have scoured windy hills and tussock flats through
sub-Antarctic cold, and still there is no sign.
A wildlife paradise, Macquarie Island looks finally to have been saved from the
rabbit. Scientists are cautiously optimistic that rabbits may have been
eradicated from the World Heritage site.
Lush megaherb fields once destroyed by rabbit teeth are splendid again. Steep
slopes denuded to the point of landslide are clothed in green. But the hunters
and their dogs have work ahead.
‘‘ There are still three or four rabbits we haven’t accounted for,’’ said
Macquarie’s pest eradication program manager, Keith Springer. ‘‘ It’s starting
to look likea success, but we’re still hesitant to say that.’’
Rabbit eradication would end a decades-long struggle against introduced pests
in the designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage site.
Rabbits, rats and mice have lived there since 19th century sealers brought
them, and their numbers exploded after feral cats were trapped and finally shot
out in 2003.
Myxamotosis and calicivirus had some success against an estimated
100,000-strong rabbit population, but the great blow was the poison-baiting of
the whole island by helicopters through the winter of 2011.
The $24 million federal-state program appears to have knocked over the rabbits,
as well as eradicating rodents from the 34-kilometre Southern Ocean wildlife
sanctuary.
Total victory is up to the hunters and their dogs. ‘‘ It’s a pretty tough,
field-based job,’’ Mr Springer said. ‘‘ There are low temperatures, constant
strong winds, fog, and the terrain is challenging as well.’’ The 13 men and
women hunters split up into small teams and head out for tiny field huts for a
month ata time, accompanied by labradors, springers and terriers trained to
ignore the teeming seal and seabird colonies.
Over winter, conditions were so cold that hunters reported that if they stopped
walking, they would freeze in minutes.
In the months immediately after the helicopter baiting, the teams accounted for
13 rabbits, including a doe and kittens.
But since November 2011, no rabbit has been seen, nor their droppings or
footprints, and not even a spotlighted eye shine at night.
Scavenging birds also badly hit by the poison baiting appear to be recovering.
More than 2200 birds, mainly skuas and giant petrels, died either from eating
baits or the carcasses of the rabbits and rodents, aSenate estimates was told.
‘‘ We have noticed a bit of an increase in breeding numbers for these birds,’’
Mr Springer said.
Where the greenery was reduced to a close-cropped grassland, a mosaic of flora
is reappearing .
A botanical ecologist with the Tasmanian government, Jennie Whinam, found that
for the first time in years working on Macquarie, she was able to see an entire
landscape without rabbit damage.
Ground-nesting grey and cape petrels, which deserted the island under predation
from rats, are also coming back.
Mr Springer said the plan had been to hunt for three years after the baiting.
‘‘ I think we’ll send another team down next year, and if they haven’t found
any evidence, that would be it,’’ he said.
A win on Macquarie would offer global lessons in pest eradication and the
restoration of natural ecosystems.
‘‘ Certainly, it is the largest eradication exercise globally for the rabbit,’’
he said.
Copyright © 2012 Fairfax Media
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