Would you be willing to help bring back the rabbits?

[Guest Countryboyo]

Yea,All seems a good idea for a bit of sport,,But does farmer jones want more and more about on his land?

 

Well a lot of people on here own land or have friends or relations that do. I will be releasing on a farmers land that has a rough area he dosent use and he wants me to control the numbers when the project is under way. Suits me fine. A lot of land owners are fairly sound. Manage your herd and the farmer will be happy.

[Guest chook]

It can be done but it takes a lot of work, depending on what breed you choose to mate with the wild rabbit,

on the first few breedings you wont get consistancy with the colour, my two rabbits female is dutch x wild,

the other is her son, his dad was domestic mixed breed, female came out brown with silver flecks,

the male is black, the rest of the litter was all mixed, the siblings to my female was all relesed when quite young,

but with in the year they was dead, they didnt survive - so the whole project was given up,

we dont know why they died, wether it was the fox taking them or the fact they would be out in broad daylight

and not scared of anything at all, if you want constante colour your best bet is to take some young wild ones - to make it work though

you need to try and tame the breeders up enough so as you can work with them, once they start breeding and the babys are old enough,

the babys can be moved to an outside pen, where contact is reduced - you need to keep there diet

as natural as possable, that dont include carrots and lettice, once there up to weight and are scared of humans - then you can either do a soft or a hard release, its not going to be easy and will take time to get it right - so your best bet is not to rush it.

[Guest Countryboyo]

It can be done but it takes a lot of work, depending on what breed you choose to mate with the wild rabbit,

on the first few breedings you wont get consistancy with the colour, my two rabbits female is dutch x wild,

the other is her son, his dad was domestic mixed breed, female came out brown with silver flecks,

the male is black, the rest of the litter was all mixed, the siblings to my female was all relesed when quite young,

but with in the year they was dead, they didnt survive - so the whole project was given up,

we dont know why they died, wether it was the fox taking them or the fact they would be out in broad daylight

and not scared of anything at all, if you want constante colour your best bet is to take some young wild ones - to make it work though

you need to try and tame the breeders up enough so as you can work with them, once they start breeding and the babys are old enough,

the babys can be moved to an outside pen, where contact is reduced - you need to keep there diet

as natural as possable, that dont include carrots and lettice, once there up to weight and are scared of humans - then you can either do a soft or a hard release, its not going to be easy and will take time to get it right - so your best bet is not to rush it.

 

Excellent point Chook. The offspring of the breeding stock have to be taken away from the mothers as soon as weaned. 7-8 weeks. Put them in as lardge a pen as possible with some branches and a mound of earth if possible to incourage burrowing. Have absolutely minimal contact with the rabbits and dont handle them. I also forgot to mention that when you are buying domestic females for breeding you should pick the agouti wild coloured ones. keep the offspring that are black, brown light brown and ginger. but white rabbits would be a waste of time releasing. Petshop for them.

[Guest Countryboyo]

I found this captive wild rabbit breeding programme/recovery project very interesting.

Take a look

 

Behavior, Dispersal, and Survival of Captive-Raised Idaho Pygmy Rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) Released onto the INEEL in Idaho

Idaho NERP Links

History of the Idaho NERP

Current NERP Research

 

 

Background

The pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) is the smallest rabbit in North America, a sagebrush foraging specialist, and one of only two North American rabbits to dig its own burrow. The long-isolated and genetically unique population of Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits located in eastern Washington State has declined precipitously to dangerously low levels and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently listed the Washington pygmy rabbits as an endangered population segment under the Endangered Species Act. Because little is known about successful captive-rearing and methods for restoring pygmy rabbits back into vacant natural habitats, reintroduction techniques in southeastern Idaho are being tested to develop protocols for the eventual restoration of endangered pygmy rabbits in Washington State. Idaho pygmy rabbits are propagated in captivity at Washington State University (WSU) and elsewhere and released into the wild in southeastern Idaho. The Idaho Fish and Game Department supervises these releases to determine whether selected captive rearing and release methods influence the behavior, dispersal, and survival of pygmy rabbits reintroduced into suitable sagebrush habitat.

 

Objectives

 

Develop techniques to enhance the survival of captive-bred Idaho pygmy rabbits released into natural habitats for the purpose of establishing new local populations of pygmy rabbits.

Test the effects of captive-rearing and release methods on the resulting behavior, dispersal, and survival of reintroduced pygmy rabbits.

Develop recommended protocols for restoring pygmy rabbits in areas of vacant, suitable sagebrush habitat, and model the numbers of captive-bred animals and survival rates needed to establish new local breeding populations.

 

Accomplishments through 2004

 

A total of 42 pygmy rabbits were released from 2002-2004 at the INEEL to study behavior and survival of reintroduced animals. Rabbits originating from a source population in Idaho were raised in captivity at WSU, fitted with radio collars weighing < 2 percent of body weight, and released into temporary, weld-wire containment pens on the INEEL. The temporary pens surrounded the two openings of 3.0 to 4.5 m (10 to 15 ft) long plastic drainage tube burrows dug into the soil about 0.75 to 1.0 m (2.5 to 3.5 ft) deep in the center. The plastic-tubing burrows were used to partially replicate a natural pygmy rabbit burrow system and provide both thermal buffering and some protection against digging predators. Another goal of the artificial burrow system was to reduce premature dispersal of rabbits away from the release site selected in good sagebrush habitat. Released rabbits were monitored almost daily to record behavior, dispersal and habitat use.

 

Results

 

All released rabbits readily adapted to the small, temporary holding cages surrounding their burrow openings and continued normal feeding on provided foods (i.e., sagebrush tips, spinach, lettuce, pellet food). All containment pens were removed from the burrows by the fourth day, allowing free movement and dispersal of the animals.

 

Rabbits moved an average of 54.1 m (177.5 ft) from their initial release burrow during their first week after soft release. Most rabbits remained fairly localized on the release site. Mean movement distances did not vary significantly among the first, second, or third week after soft release. Most captive-bred, dispersing animals selected an appropriate habitat consisting of relatively tall, dense big sagebrush with relatively good grass and forb availability. Released animals appeared to adapt to natural local forage quickly and appeared to use a high proportion of grass and forbs until colder weather in fall and winter, which prompted greater use of sagebrush.

 

Predation was the main source of mortality for released pygmy rabbits. Of the 42 released animals, approximately 26 percent were censured from the study (primarily because radio signals were lost and because of one collar malfunction), 42 percent were lost to predators, 19 percent were lost to unknown mortality factors, and 12 percent were alive at the end of the project. Eighteen of the 27 documented mortalities were caused by predators. Four mortalities were caused by raptors; northern harriers (Circus cyaneus) were directly observed in two predation events. Twelve animals were killed by long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata) and two were confirmed coyote (Canis latrans) kills.

 

Survival - Total survivorship for the release population was 0.138 (Standard Error ± 0.085). This survivorship translates to an annual survival rate of 32 percent. Age and sex did not significantly influence survival, although the ability to detect such differences was limited. Males and females had similar survivorship; however, females experienced a higher mean survival time (175.7 days) than males (83.6 days). Annual survival rate was 18 percent for males and 30 percent for females.

 

Survival varied significantly among seasons (i.e., release groups). The annual survival rate was 0 percent for July, 24 percent for August, 32 percent for September, and 18 percent for February. However, the February release group had 50 percent of the rabbits released from the soft-release cages survive until the breeding season.

 

Survival quantiles for the released rabbits show a 76 percent survivorship for the first six days post soft-release, declining to 28 percent by day 95. Survivorship did not drop below 25 percent until day 260.

 

Reproduction of Reintroduced Pygmy Rabbits - At least two of the surviving released females appear to have given birth on the INEEL release site. One of the females was observed in 2003 and one in 2004. Consequently, it appears that surviving females will produce litters in the first spring after their release.

[victor 10]

not a bad idea. but thay are a very big pest and do need to be controled.

[Guest Countryboyo]

not a bad idea. but thay are a very big pest and do need to be controled.

 

Ya I agree they have to be controlled. But at the moment there are very little around at all and they seem to becoming more scarce every year. They are pests when they are in huge numbers but in my part of ireland they are more under threat than pests. If people go ahead with this project they will obviously be responsible for controlling the rabbit numbers on the land they release them.

 

THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT IN RELEASING THEM. SO WE CAN ENJOY CONTROLING THEIR NUMBERS AND THINNING THE HERD FROM TIME TO TIME.

 

sorry if this was not made clear enough to some of you.

 

To be honest where i am i would never worry about my project turning into an explosion in the rabbit population and farmers land being destroyed, There are far too many foxes and mink around for rabbit populations to explode. But I reckon i could maintain a reasonable number on a section of land.

[cachuiar 4]

Yea,All seems a good idea for a bit of sport,,But does farmer jones want more and more about on his land?

the more natural prey for fox there is on farmer jones s land the less chace of mr fox eatin farmer jones s lovely little lambs

[threbb 0]

I think it,s the old fox that,s going to have to be bred soon,there is no season on them and i could tell you tales all afternoon about them being persecuted to extinction in this country.Calling and shooting is the big problem,which i don,t mind if you rear gamebirds or the like ,but driving around and shooting them from roadsides is not hunting in my book.

dead right there.

[Guest Countryboyo]

I think it,s the old fox that,s going to have to be bred soon,there is no season on them and i could tell you tales all afternoon about them being persecuted to extinction in this country.Calling and shooting is the big problem,which i don,t mind if you rear gamebirds or the like ,but driving around and shooting them from roadsides is not hunting in my book.

dead right there.

 

I agree there is no sport in this at all. it is highly practiced in my area and I disagree with that method of drive-by hunting. People are also shooting way too many rabbits and just leaving them to rot its a joke.

[Guest Countryboyo]

I got some great advice in a few pms from a member on the forum but one great idea in particular that she mentioned was that we each keep records maybe a diary of our project and record the colours of the offspring,amount. how the male copes in captivity. how the different generations become more wild as you introduce more wild blood eg the half wild rabbits compared to the three quarter wilds etc. and how the colours will become less frequent as you introduce more and more wild breeding. By recording information we can all share with each other what we learn and improve our projects. I see that a lot of you are interested in taking part in the project. please let me know if you plan to go ahead with this project and be a part of it. Many thanks CB

Edited December 16, 2008 by Countryboyo

[Back Stabbath 1]

Good idea! Records are a must.

[Guest Countryboyo]

Good idea! Records are a must.

 

Can I take it that you will join me in the project black sabbath?

[Guest Countryboyo]

breeding pen the guy on the jacksshed forum has

 

 

[Guest Countryboyo]

Ok guys gather round gather round until i say a few words. First of all I would like to say thanks to all who took part in my poll. It was a very positive result and to be honest i diddnt expect such great responce. over 50% voted that they would take part in the project and i think that it just goes to show that we as hunters are willing to put something back into nature, and its not all take with us. Its very important to protect our way of life.

 

Anyway I would just like to know which of you are willing to take part so we can set out a plan of action and get the show on the road. I feel that if we do this as a group there is more of a chance we will follow through with it and we will also learn more from each other. so you can pm me or just let me know here who is going to give it a shot. Id spose realy it would be best to reply on my topic on the gamekeeping and conservation section. Thanks all.

[green oval 8]

Hi lads it seems clear that over all the rabbit populations in general seem to be dropping and non existant in places. I have decided that I am going to try and tackle the problem in my area by breeding rabbits for release and hopefully help the population recovery in my area. I have read numerous accounts of this kind of action being very successful in rabbit recovery. I would like to know if you would support such action and/or even consider taking part in a breeding programme yourselves. Thanks lads I ask only that you approach this topic with an open mind.

 

 

Surely you must be taking the piss...