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Background
The European rabbit is native to the Mediterranean, and in particular the Iberian Peninsula. Rabbits arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 but were not released into the wild until 1859. Natural spread was helped by additional introductions later in the 1800’s to almost all other states including Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. Rabbits reached the Northern Territory by natural spread, and by 1905 had reached Tennant Creek. The rate of colonisation of the rabbit in Australia is higher than that recorded for any animal anywhere in the world. Impacts Rabbits are recognised as Australia’s worst vertebrate pest. Competition and land degradation by feral rabbits is listed as a key threatening process under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). They have occurred in the more arid parts of the Northern Territory for more than a century, where they cause economic losses to pastoral production and significant environmental damage through habitat modification and direct competition with native fauna for food and shelter. Rabbits compete with domestic stock for food, they damage soils thus contributing to erosion problems, and they cause profound damage to native plants. In the arid areas of Australia, including the southern Northern Territory, rabbits overgraze pasture plants and reduce trees and shrubs by killing mature plants and suppressing the recruitment of seedlings. Rabbits also have a deleterious impact on many native fauna either directly through competition for food or shelter, or indirectly through environmental modification. The result is loss of biodiversity. Rabbits have been linked to the decline of species like the bilby (Macrotis lagotis) and the disappearance of the burrowing bettong (Bettongia lesueur) in the Northern Territory. Management Practices Australia wide, biological control has had a significant effect on rabbits and their impacts. Myxomatosis, a fatal disease affecting only rabbits, was deliberately introduced in the early 1950s to control rabbits, spreading naturally to the Northern Territory by 1951. Initially, the disease had a marked impact on rabbit populations, but longer term impacts were affected by development of resistance to the disease in the rabbit population. Similarly, in the 1980s, the European rabbit flea was released at 25 sites in central Australia to help spread myxomatosis. However, the European flea failed to spread. In 1993 the arid adapted Spanish rabbit flea was introduced to the Northern Territory which proved to be more successful. Subsequently, in late 1995 after the release of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) became established in the wild in Australia. This disease has had a more profound effect on rabbit numbers, particularly in areas of low to moderate rainfall. It has reduced rabbit numbers across much of the rangelands by more than 80%. The development of resistance to this disease in rabbit populations is now a major area of research in Australia. In addition to biological control, other methods for controlling rabbits include:
The future goal is to ensure that existing techniques are used safely and effectively, that new techniques are developed as necessary to enhance rabbit management, and that all stakeholders recognise the need for rabbit management in the Northern Territory and participate cooperatively. |