Rabbits wrecking Australian isle

Yahoo News ^ | April 22, 2007

[Clintonfatigued]

An explosion in the rabbit population has "trashed" the World Heritage listed Macquarie Island, which is home to endangered penguins and albatrosses, the World Wide Fund for Nature said.

The conservation group is calling on the government to implement a 25 million dollar (21 million US) strategy to eradicate rabbits, rats and mice on the sub-Antarctic territory.

WWF spokesman Andreas Glanznig said it was possible that mice, which have been shown to become carnivorous on an island in the Atlantic, could evolve enough to threaten endangered bird species on the remote scrap of land.

"It's a scary scenario but it's not outside the realm of possibility," he said. But he added that rabbits posed the more immediate threat.

"The rabbits are changing the whole ecosystem. The ecosystem is literally falling apart," Glanznig told AFP. "The whole island has been trashed."

[Clintonfatigued]

If I were a local, I would open a new restaurant offering rabbit as a delicacy. That would fix those rascally rabbits!

[AntiGuv]

If they can succeed in eradicating the rabbits they should certainly do so. They need to get the rats and mice too. An eradication program was successful on New Zealand's Campbell Island, so there's no reason why it can't be similarly successful on Macquerie Island.

[353FMG]

How about making rabbit jerky for export? I’ll do the shooting, you’ll do the smoking and drying.

[tillacum]

So why don’t they load up some rabbit pellets with birth control medication instead of whining? They’ve been watching the increase for sometime. As for the mice and rats, put out rat poison.

[dfwgator]

Sounds like this is one case where Jimmy Carter might actually be of some use.

[Tall_Texan]

No worries, mate! When the polar ice caps melts, the polar bears will swim over and eat the bunnies!! Three cheers for global warming!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Test first to see if penguins are affected, and if not, for the mice, bubonic plague, tulemaria for the rabbits.

(I would suggest weasels, martins, and fox, but they would turn on the penguins once they ran out of mice and rabbits.)

[JRios1968]

We'll start with this one...

[2111USMC]

Those are the strangest looking rabbits I’ve ever seen.

[Vince Ferrer]

I am having trouble considering carniverous mice a scary scenario.

[AliVeritas]

[AliVeritas]

[socal_parrot]

If this island’s rockin’, don’t bother knocking!!!

[A knight without armor]

Got to love Australia. It is never unemployment, scandal, massacres, terrorists. Always some little animal taking over the place.

[AliVeritas]

You don’t live in the Bronx... do you?

[dfwgator]

That’s a lot of Hausenpfeffer.

[umbagi]

Glanznig called on Canberra to take control of the island from the Tasmanian government to put an end to the plague.

Yeah, that's the ticket! Replace small government with BIG GOVERNMENT!

[EEDUDE]

This cannot be a true story.

Only humans can damage the environment.

Animals are natural and organic.

[Bratch]