Gabriola rabbits?
I hear we’ve got feral rabbits on Gabriola. I don’t see any around here, though. Are there rabbits running about in your neighbourhood? Are there parts of the island where wild bunnies are a problem?
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.)
Filed in Gabriola Island,wildlife 7 Comments so far
7 Responses to “Gabriola rabbits?”
rick on 06 Jan 2011 at 9:02 am #
According to old-timers from the Silva Bay area, large black and white rabbits were quite prolific on the south end of the island in the early 1900′s. When the depression hit, their numbers declined until they virtually disappeared. Rabbit stew must have been a popular dish for struggling islanders back then. Although the black and white rabbits never made a comeback, recently there have been more sitings of your average small brown bunnies – likely escapees from domestic hutches. I guess they will soon start laying chocolate eggs for Easter.
Gabriolan on 06 Jan 2011 at 9:27 am #
Interesting bit of history, rick! Thanks.
>recently there have been more sitings of your average small brown bunnies
On any particular part of the island? I never see any.
cheryl on 06 Jan 2011 at 9:28 am #
Brown Way off of Horseshoe Rd. Has a very bad rabbit problem. I’ve heard a lady on that Rd. has a lot to do with the population explosion. So the gossip goes.
Gabriolan on 06 Jan 2011 at 9:18 pm #
cheryl – Interesting! The only rabbit I’ve seen on Gabriola was right in that neighbourhood. It was some years ago, and I was so new to Gabriola (and naïve) that I worried about it being somebody’s pet, escaped.
Today I was in Nanaimo, and spent part of the day at one of my favourite cafes there. And outside the window? Two bunnies, eating the garden and hiding under bushes when dogs came by. :-)
Neil on 16 Jan 2011 at 10:59 am #
We live on Browns Way and have done for a year now. There are certainly rabbits here but from our count the population is stable if not declining slightly. There is a lady…a lonely lady who takes comfort in feeding and to some extent, caring for the rabbits but…nature is nature and bunnies are at the bottom of the food chain (owls, eagles, hawks, cats, dogs, river otters, raccoons, cars all take their toll). She adds nothing more than a little warmth and compassion to their short lives!
Bunnies are a nuisance for one reason; they eat our gardens and that folks is a relatively easy thing to stop…fence your garden in. We have to fence out the deer, that are a heck of a lot more destructive to a garden, so what’s a little chicken wire around your veggie plot. What do bunnies add: They are adorable, they’re quite intelligent and all have different personalities, they eat dandelions and lots of other ‘pesty’ weeds, they attract beautiful raptors and owls, they fertilize the ground (bunny poo and pee is almost odorless and a very good fertilizer), they’re entertaining to watch (lots of antics) they delight the kids and comfort lonely people. Hate to say it but we love the bunnies!
Shihiro on 17 Jan 2011 at 12:47 pm #
@Neil
You have to be kidding me, I have lived on that same road with this so called “Lonely” lady, as you put it, I say crazy. I have come home very, very late at night and have found this lady in our drive way with her nose pressed to our gate watching our rabbit and family more than once, when we asked her to leave she freaked out saying we stole her rabbits! and how she was going to get them back, and this has happened a few times.. I’m sorry but this is creepy someone watching you and harassing you about rabbits, its unhealthy I don’t want people like that around my family she’s scary. She breeds rabbits and lets them go free, she needs to stop doing this.
She needs help.
Gabriolan on 20 Jan 2011 at 6:33 pm #
Neil and Shihiro – thanks for your comments about the rabbit situation on Brown’s Way. I had no idea!