Rabbits are no longer rampantly hopping about in Delta Park.
Birds of prey and better palisade fencing in the area are believed to be the reasons for this.
Resident manager of the Delta Environmental Centre Geoff Lockwood and publisher of the online Delta Park newsletter Shirley Tebbutt, said there had been rabbits in the park for about five years.
However, a problem started about 18 months ago when a resident in the area purchased two rabbits which escaped into the park and started breeding.
”The resident was told the domestic rabbits were the same sex,” Tebbutt said. ”But you can’t sex a rabbit until it is three months old and these were six weeks old.
”The first time we saw them there were about 60 and we thought ‘wow, these are going to breed quickly’, but there doesn’t seem to be as many of them now,” said Tebbutt.
Lockwood believes that steppe buzzards and other raptors were killing the rabbits.
According to Lockwood and Tebbutt, this combined with the rabbits’ lack of shelter has led to their decrease in numbers.
