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Wild rabbits are the most common pest mammal in the Coorong National Park in South Australia and were too numerous for the Park's vegetation to support.
The results from studies conducted in the Park are to be discussed at theVertebrate Pest Conference in Tasmania this week.
Dr Brian Cooke from the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology conducted the studies over a 4 year period while working with the SA Animal and Plant Control Commission in collaboration with the SA Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He found that rabbits eat over 90% of the edible plants in Coorong National Park in SA annually compared to less than 8% eaten by kangaroos.
"These experimental results show quite clearly that rabbits are out-competing native animals even those we consider common and not endangered," Dr Cooke said. "Now we understand better why so many species were lost from Australia as rabbits spread across the continent at the end of last century.
"Rabbits are not obvious when you enter the Park, in fact, they amount to little more than 3 or 4 per hectare but there are still too many for the native pastures to support and the native mammals of the Park are suffering," he said. "Rabbits have been in the Park for a long time and people no longer notice them or realise the changes that have occured because of rabbits."
The SA Department of Environment and Natural Resources has collaborated with the SA Animal and Plant Control Commission with Vertebrate Pest training courses in the Coorong National Park to assist in tackling the rabbit problem. Conventional control methods applied to farmland can be very cost effective but are not always suitable for a national park so warren ripping and fumigating techniques were modified so as not to cause harm to native plant, bird or mammal populations.
"Carefully applied modified control techniques have reduced rabbits to 5% of their initial numbers," said CSIRO scientist, Dr Cooke.
Rabbit control has to be considered as a major management aim in conservation areas as well as in agricultural areas. "These modified techniques provide a means of enhancing the value of our national parks wherever rabbits are a problem," he said.
The costs and the extent of the problem in some parks prohibit the use of conventional controls so long term research for the biological control of rabbits being conducted by CSIRO is very important in future conservation management of protected areas.
Funds for the studies were contributed by the Australian Nature Conservation Agency.
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