In 1859, an Australian settler named Thomas Austin imported
twenty-four live rabbits from his native England. Thomas was fond of
British-style hunting parties, but his sprawling Melbourne estate didn’t
contain game in sufficient numbers for that kind of entertainment. Thomas wasn’t
the first European to bring rabbits to Australia, and he wasn’t the last. But
geneticists claim the rabbits that continue to cause ecological damage on the
subcontinent are descendants of the two dozen he released on his land. In
England, wild rabbits can be spotted nibbling on the edges of lawns near dusk. Stoats,
buzzards, polecats, red foxes and humans find them quite tasty. But in
Australia, they have very few predators. Within three years, Thomas’
twenty-four rabbits had become thousands. Australia has suffered through
several rabbit plagues since, where the fast-breeding bunnies have obliterated local
flora and pushed out the fauna. They’ve even contributed to large-scale soil
erosion.
No comments:
Post a Comment