Gardens invaded as wild rabbit population grows

Jamie Hooper, who heads the environmental consultancy and management company Environment Guernsey, which manages the common for the Vale Commons Council, said a number of reports had been made about rabbits this year, with numbers at an all-time high, with the local population having rebuilt over the years having been hit hard by rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease, which wiped out some areas completely.

Rabbits are being spotted coming into domestic properties searching for food, and Environment Guernsey has been asked to remove them from some hotspots, including Pulias Pond, where rare plants were in danger from over-grazing, and Fort George.

‘It was like Watership Down up there,’ Mr Hooper told the Vale parish website, valeparish.gg. ‘We found several on each lawn.’

The population on L’Ancresse Common has also boomed. Although impact on the whole area is minimal, there are now warrens on the common ‘which we could do without’, said Mr Hooper.

‘We can live with it because although we do get scrapes and bare soil, it’s an opportunity for other plants to colonise. The bigger problem is where owners allow their dogs to dig out the rabbit holes, which causes worse damage.’

But the recovery in the rabbit population may be shortlived. Conditions are said to be ripe for haemorrhagic disease and myxomatosis to return.

Mr Hooper expects it to strike again in the next few weeks and nothing can be done to stop it.

‘Rabbit numbers are now so high that there could be a significantly high death rate if it does.’