Tahr's pic with the mass of rabbit holes tells a story - but it can actually be worse. Untold acres with thousands of burrows, and zero vegetation left. All gone. Barren like a lunar landscape - and yet somehow rabbits live in even those environments. Some low hills were so completely holed they looked like a big pumice block - like some kind of geological formation. As a farmer's son I could only shake my head - its no longer a matter of stock units per acre, or acres per stock unit - there are square miles there where you wouldn't put an animal.
Real pleasure to help and shoot the little bastards. I also dropped the back end of the 4x4 into a big warren that collapsed - driving along and next thing you're headlights are pointing at the sky... Got out alright.
North Canterbury's bunny heyday 8-15 years ago was different. Millions of them but they had not had the chance to eat out the grass - and here its much less marginal land, well grassed downs and higher country terrain. This pic is from a big farm where we shot tens of thousands in total. At bottom of hill is small flat scrubby paddock where I nailed 105 in 95 minutes - just moving quietly from spot to spot with bipod and JW15. Rimfire heaven. At other end of that flat @gadgetman popped 100 in about 43 minutes. Lucky sod - I think that was the quickest 100. But the farm terrain here was still ok - they got stuck into the bunnies in time, poisoned heaps, we shot heaps, and the virus had huge effect. Legend shooting for us - and they prevented that pasture ruin you see further south..
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