THE RABBIT PEST IN A NUTSHELL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3768, 22 June 1907, Page 2

THE RABBIT PEST IN A NUTSHELL.

Mr. W. Rodier, of Tambua, Cobar, N.S.W., sends us the following facts re rabbit extermination, which are worth considering:— (i) The rabbits are nolygamous; (2) because 01 being polygamous they have become a pest; (3) this polygamy is caused by the use of the spring trap and ppison cart; (4) it is impossible for them to be a pest and at the same time polyandrous. The spring trap and poison carts kill more males than females, this causes the rabbits that are not caught to live in a polygamus state, because of being polygamous the females are very much more prolific than they otherwise would be and produce, more females than males. Consequently, any thing that kills the males increases the pest and acts in the same way as the proverbial snowball or the notorious chain letter, the longer they are continued, the greater becomes the volume of the rabbits, and that is why the rabbits have spread from Southern Victoria well into Queensland and West Australia in spite of the hundreds of thousands of millions that have been killed or died by the droughts. The remedy is to make the rabbits polyandrous, and to do this only such plans as catch the rabbits alive should be used, then kill all females and liberate all males, and for convenience sake cut off half the near ear of all males, let go, so that they will be known if caught a second time.