Need For Stepping Up Rabbit Control

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 8

Need For Stepping Up Rabbit Control

Expenditure on rabbit destruction needed to be increased rather than reduced, the president of the South Island Rabbit Boards’ Association, Mr C. C. S. Parker, of Mount Dalgety station in the Mackenzie Country, said this week. In many parts of the South Island, particularly in the inland areas, he said that there had recently been drought conditions and there had been a quite alarming increase in the rabbit population.

Mr Parker recalled that the Babbit Destruction Council had been established in 1948 by a very worried Government because the rabbit had got completely out of control during World War IL Production was being affected to a very marked degree. In an article in “The Press” last week Dr. J. A. Gibb, director of the Animal Ecology Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, had been quoted as saying that the cost of the rabbit control programme was £l.sm, but it had been proved that on a conservative basis this was returning the country £3om a year in extra production. Why then should suggestions be made for reducing control measures? (Dr. Gibb in the article mentioned advocated economic control of the rabbit rather than seeking to eliminate the last rabbit). Short Memories "We admit it may not be possible to get the last rabbit,” said Mr Parker. "We know that many people and unfortunately even some farmers could not care less whether they are exterminated or not Times have changed and memories are sometimes short There is a new generation of farmers coming on and many of them have never seen what this pest can do. ' "In our opinion the programme against the rabbit should be intensified rather than reduced or history will repeat itself and we will have to go through a progressive loss of production in many parts of the country and finally will have to do the job of control all over again at a very much greater cost than is being paid annually at the present time.” Rabbit boards and their employees were very much aware of the build up of numbers that there had been this season which had been so favourable to the rabbit. Their programme had to be arranged about a year ahead and they had to work against the vagaries of the weather, which in some cases could completely ruin a kill or delay a programme so that stock could not be held off country any longer. If there was a national disaster like a war or a similar

situation such as any Government withdrawing financial support for something that was so important to every New Zealander, then they would inevitably lose control of the rabbit and the new situation created would not be, as Dr. Gibb suggested, “economic,” but very highly uneconomic. In the most recent financial period Mr Parker said just when the programmes of many rabbit boards were at

their height the Government had seen fit to reduce its allocation of funds for rabbit destruction by £25,000 when it had earlier agreed to the recommendations of the Babbit Destruction Council. “This is the first time that any Government has done this since the formation of the council and the introduction of the killer policy,” said Mr Parker. “The indications are that for the coming year the expenditure of a great many boards will need to be heavier than last year, which indicates that the estimate of Government expenditure may also have to be increased instead of being reduced.” Mr Parker said that only three years ago there bad been headlines in the press throughout the country about how in the area of the Meringa board east of Taupo the rabbit population had denuded a large Government development block. The department concerned had had to shift nearly aU the stock off this property so that the explosion could be dealt with. The rabbit population had become so thick that the only way to deal with it was by aerial poisoning. As carrots were not then available in sufficient quantities the Babbit Destruction Council and the Meringa board had arrang. ed for a supply of swedes for poison baits. To his knowledge the heaviest baiting with carrots in the South Island had been about five tons hr the 1000 acres, but the rate of spreading in this North Island area had been nine tons to the 1000 acres and the rabbits had eaten the lot In areas which favoured the rabbit whether it was in the South Island or North Island, this sort of thing could occur again, Mr Parker said. In parts of the South Island there had lately been a drought and the increase in population had been quite alarming. Better Position Mr Parker said it was felt that rabbit boards and their inspectors and officers of the Department of Agriculture were in a far better position to know what could and did happen with rabbits than could be obtained from conducting one or two experiments, which, although they might be carried out efficiently and thoroughly, only proved the point that in certain areas the rabbit did not increase at the tremendous rate it did in the habitats that suited it Questioned about his allegation that there had recently been an upsurge in rabbit populations in the South Island, Mr Parker said that in the case of the Mackenzie board, and also many others, country which would not nor-

maliy have been poisoned for two to three years would have to be treated this year or there would be an explosion in the rabbit population. This painted to the fact that rather than expenditure being reduced it should be stepped up. The return for this investment was probably the best that had been obtained in the country in the last 25 years. It should be remembered that it was only a few years after the liberation of a few pairs of rabbits in Southland and Marlborough last century that they increased to the point where they devastated some of the best sheep country in the South Island, and today instead of there being just a few pairs of rabbits there were probably hundreds of pairs in every province of the country. Undoubtedly the density of the pest varied according to rainfall, habitat and control activities, but if the pressure was not kept up it was inevitable that this animal would do again what it had done three times already (twice in the lifetime of some people) and this would cost the country millions and millions of pounds. In a sense Mr Parker said that economic control of the rabbit was indeed being prac-

Used at the present time because factors limiting extermination included the availability of finance, manpower and knowledge. "We look to the Government for their continued financial support,” said Mr Parker. "The ratepayers are already contributing their very fair share of the cost and are contributing again as taxpayers. We are looking to the scientists to supply some of the knowledge and we will depend in the future, as in the past, on members of rabbit boards to supply the intimate knowledge that they have of their own district, which they do for nothing. We also look to our inspectors and their staffs who have become enthusiastic in their job to keep on with the good work.” Mr Parker added that two Australian scientists who had been sent to New Zealand by the Victorian Government some years ago to study rabbit destruction methods, and particularly the operation of the killer policy, had expressed the opinion that New Zealand led the world in its efforts to exterminate the pest The strength of the organisation here, said Mr Parker, bad been that there had been dedicated men at the top in the Rabbit Destruction Council directing the operations.