# Hunting > Varminting and Small Game Hunting >  Virus

## Wirehunt

https://wordpress.com/post/killthatrabbit.me/329

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## viper

I have been informed by a Farmer who's place I shoot that the virus has been released in the Central Otago area. About 2 kms up the road from where I shoot so it will be interesting to see how it affects the rabbit numbers and my shooting.
I don't know how accurate the information is but he reckons it spreads at 500 mtrs to 1 km a day.....

It will be interesting to see if the farmers have got any smarter than they have been when the first illegal release happened. Many sat back and did very little in the way of pest control and now have a problem again.
A few with fore sight saw it as a chance to get a big break on the problem and try and stay on top of it.

My moneys on the rabbits shrugging this off in 3-4 yrs. Can't just keep bringing in new virus's forever before something goes badly wrong and a strain mutates and jumps species.

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## JoshC

Just got to keep smashing them even after the virus has been released. Farmers that do that will see results. If they sit back and think its the golden goose they'll likely get a surprise in a few years. The rabbit numbers down here in places astound me. My neighbor has taken about 14,000 of a place down the road since October.

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## csmiffy

my old easter bunny hunt crew very disappointed.
Notification of its release 2 weeks ago prompted the cancellation/postponement of the bunny shoot only 3 odd weekend from its happening

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## viper

> @viper are the farmers still happy to let hunters onto properties or is it more for locals up there now.did the bunny shoot quite a few years ago and keen to go back and do some more rabbit shooting this winter.


hi @Berg , it's a good question for out of towners. It hasn't changed much with some farmers very reluctant to grant access and when they do despite the airfares / petrol money , accommodation costs, ammo costs and food bill that you are paying for they act as if they have just handed you the keys to the city. These guys are normally the one with the big rabbit problems. There are health and safety issues that they have to consider when you are on their land and it is a privilege to be granted access and a responsibility to act safety and exercise common sense and control around their property and in the handling of your firearms. 
However if it was my farm and I had some keen fella's happy to put the time and effort into my rabbit problem and you were genuine then I would be very happy to get you knocking them over.

Then we have the farmers who know you are NOT going to fix their rabbit problem but every one you shoot is one less and rather than moan and ring their hands they appreciate any help they can get .
I have one such farmer who really appreciates the effort I put in to shooting his rabbits, I haven't fixed his problem and it has cost me a lot of money in ammo and time and thats with him helping by buying ammo for me as well.
He and his wife are older people and only have 250 odd acres however I am coming up to 3000 rabbits in under two years. 
It's changed my perception of the rabbit and the problem, it is fun and amazing sport for me and you...it's a farm buster for them..... the 3000 rabbits I have shot so far equals 300 sheep, that's a lot of extra stock or more importantly food for existing stock.

I think you will have no problem gaining access to many farms, don't rock up like Rambo be polite and go in with the attitude that the worst you are going to hear is "no" ...most say ok.
As for what the rabbit numbers do over the next few months will be interesting , as I stated in my earlier post I don't believe that the virus is the answer, it's short term and once immunity is gained it's worthless and becomes less and less effective per generation of rabbits.

I have a farm that has used different methods of control that exist and have for years. It is a high country station that had a rabbit problem the like's I have never seen.
He 1080'd nearly fifteen years ago, flys his Robbie every winter with a shotgunner in the passenger seat, welcomes shooters and has kept his boot on the rabbits throat, would be getting virus kills from the old original strain and is PRO-ACTIVE, I went up there and shot a Deer with my son the Christmas just gone. He know's I am a Varminter through and through and asked me to look for rabbits....in 6 hours I saw 4.... show's it can be done.

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## Mooseman

What is amazing is they are saying that they hope to achieve at least a 40 % kill on this new release. When I was still doing pest control work they always said you needed to be getting kill rates in the high 80 to 90 % to have any sort of effect on the populations. 40% will do very little except to promote increased breeding with the remaining population. 
Back in the late 90's when it first hit my area in the BOP I had count lines established over 20km's of farmland and we counted the lines twice a year.
The year the illegal release was done I had counted close to 1100 rabbits pre the virus within a week it had spread through the whole area and when the post count was done I counted 32 rabbits.
We warned the farmers that these remaining rabbits would come back if left to there own devices, which they were and with a year and a half were back to pre virus levels. Problem now was you had rabbits that are resistant to any future releases. This is a different strain but 40 % is a pretty low kill rate I think. It will be interesting to see how it effects the populations over the coming months. One thing is for sure the rabbit will survive whatever man can throw at them.

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## Dama dama

It will be just another tool.  I predict that it will have a good kill first time round if it is done right.  Long term will stabilise out at around 40% annually.  Remember councils don't want to get hopes up and need to keep farmers grounded in reality.

Farmers will have to stay on top of rabbits with traditional tools to maintain low populations.  Those farmers that continued to spend on rabbit control through the 90's and beyond more than got their money back in increased productivity, that will be the same for this strain too. 

Off to Alex this weekend, so will shoot a few and get a good feel for the "before" population.

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## viper

[QUOTE=Dama dama;688310]It will be just another tool.  I predict that it will have a good kill first time round if it is done right.  Long term will stabilise out at around 40% annually.  


The virus won't stabilise , as time progresses and the rabbit populations immunity climbs the kill rate will decrease. This has been shown from the original strain release and why they are now releasing a new variant .
I agree that done right the initial release should be effective.
Australia got the release last year and results have been mixed. Some area's reporting kill rates up to 80%, others around 40% and some showing very little result at all.

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## Marc

The problem is: they multiply like rabbits.

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## Dama dama

No sign off it yet on the property I hunt.... will keep you posted.

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## Dama dama

Pregnant (and I think lactating) females if infected by the virus can pass on immunity to the young.  Plus, I understand it, there needs to be a good fly population in order to act as a vector of the disease.   Autumn is one of the few times of the year that rabbits are not doing what rabbits do best, whist's still having a "good" active fly population.  So the window of opportunity is small to get a good establishment of the disease over a wide geographic region and hopefully a good first up kill over the next month or so.

Shame about the impact on the Easter bunny hunt, but I for one support the councils and farmers in this.

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## headcase

Now 3 to 4 weeks after the realease, depening on your location in Otago or Canterbury, the general feeling it that the Aussie suppliers pissed into a bottle and sent that over. 

No dead rabbits reported at all in the Mackenzie. I sincerly hope someone will tell me something different because we need any new tools we can get.  The 40% projected kill rate is underwelming but the hope was the new virus would kill of lot of already immune ones from the old, and start a leap frog effect between the two viruses. 

Might be wishfull thinking but whatever happens they gave it a shot so thats ok but what next.

Pity is that a lot of farmers stopped doing any control works a while back, and now the virus doesnt appear to be killing anything , so now they realy have a very big problem.

Ive just ordered a lot of Pindone pellets for the winter.

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## viper

@headcase, I am hearing the odd report of it starting to kick in. Someone up a local valley here reported it smelt like death, 50 % lower numbers than normal.
It maybe slowly gathering pace, as for the farmers who stopped doing pest control they deserve to have a problem , pest control down here is part of a good farming practice.
Being lazy pricks and hoping to get bailed out again by a new virus is bloody slack. I wonder how many will have learn't from the original release that if you get a break and do nothing then you will never get them under control.
There are enough control methods out there now, as stated in my earlier post I have seen it first hand.
Be interesting to see when / if it kicks off in the Mackenzie, good luck mate.

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## 7mmTom

They are releasing a virus in Hawkes Bay as well, I'm a bit guttered cause I am a keen rabbit shooter :Sad:

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## headcase

thanks for the good wishes Viper, I should clarify bout not doing any control work.. round here the cockeys were told to stop doing control work so the virus would have a better chance. The logic escaped me and on the properties that I do we never stopped, just kept on going, but for the people that were doing something and then got told to stop for a while, the slow start or non start to the virus release is very irritating.. rubs them right up the wrong way..

Fully concur with you on those that over the years have done SFA and hoped for the best. They deserved a hurry up long ago and always will because of the poor perspective they have on controlling numbers.

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## Dama dama

I've been hearing that not much has been happening out there....

Any updates from anyone?

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## nzfubz

Just spent 4 days in tekapo / burkes pass area on a station a couple of weeks into the virus. Feedback they had its not performing and certainly nothing on their station. Rabbit numbers were definitely through the roof compared to previous years visiting. 

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## Ernie

I shot 24 and a cat last night in the paddock it was released in, the cocky reckoned less are there, but I'm not convinced and Ive plenty more to go at !

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## rossi.45

it was released just up the road from where i shoot  . . . talking to the manager yesterday his neighbours are getting next to no reaction which is very odd considering its been at a guess, if i had to give a number, somewhere between 50-60% decline in numbers i have observed overall.  Some areas its almost 90% and yet there are pockets that seem almosty untouched,   its working on this station anyway.

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## NZVarminter

virus was release in the Bay of Plenty last week as well :Oh Noes:

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## headcase

> I shot 24 and a cat last night in the paddock it was released in, the cocky reckoned less are there, but I'm not convinced and Ive plenty more to go at !


You still standing by your statement. Would be good if it was rely happening.

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## viper

Still not much happening here, maybe a slight reduction in numbers but that got just be the time of year.
I did hear that parts of tekapo were showing some signs of it working but that's about all.

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## kidmac42

I've just been back to my rabbit block just out of town for the first time since the release a month or so back. Quietly shot a couple of dozen or so within a couple of hrs, sniping with the 223 out to about 300.
Still a lot of rabbits there, but not like pre-poisen where the ground was moving with them. I can also see the grass is growing back around a lot of the warrens, the virus has made a reasonable difference here, but regular shooting is still clearly needed.

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## dannyb

it's definitely having an impact in West Melton, there is a stretch of road I use daily travelling to and from work and I would collect 2 or 3 a week in the town car and see literally dozens every day, haven't seen one for the last week witch is almost unheard of

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## Dama dama

Seems to be kicking in on the property I hunt near Alex.  The owner reported seeing some sick looking bunnies in the weekend.

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## dannyb

well after initial promising results I am already starting to see them "bounce" back be interesting if this trend continues in other areas.......

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## Mooseman

Farmers need to follow up with "lead Poisoning" to be sure they stay on top of those rabbits, by taking a percentage out it will enhance the breeding as more food is available so manual control methods will be needed.

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## csmiffy

I've got to get back down there for some bunny bopping. All I ever did was the easter bunny hunt. Lots of work for usually shit all rabbits.
Be nice to go down, find a good spot for the weekend and just do whatever, shotguns, 22's, to get as many as possible without slogging my guts out.
take the lad down and have a ball.

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## Boaraxa

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/...s-positive-orc

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## nightshooter

I'm seeing about the same number's driving home after work,same road at about the same time

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## viper

This appeared in one of the local papers down here, the article is semi long with some interesting points being made.
I won't type it out as I am too lazy but took a photo of this summary of the new K5 virus and it's effect to date.
To be honest and they elude to it in the article these figures are perhaps not very accurate but it is a snap shot at the time.
I have kept the clipping so if anyone has any questions I will try to answer things as mentioned in the piece.
Hope the photo is clear enough to read for everyone.

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## 223nut

That's a huge spread of the stat's, got to wonder how there's is a 60% decline thats huge makes me think someone missed a decimal point in the calculations.

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## kukuwai

> This appeared in one of the local papers down here, the article is semi long with some interesting points being made.
> I won't type it out as I am too lazy but took a photo of this summary of the new K5 virus and it's effect to date.
> To be honest and they elude to it in the article these figures are perhaps not very accurate but it is a snap shot at the time.
> I have kept the clipping so if anyone has any questions I will try to answer things as mentioned in the piece.
> Hope the photo is clear enough to read for everyone.Attachment 89287


Well there is a lot of variance there isnt there. Good strike in Roxburgh, teviot & wanaka.  Negative effect in Queenstown, Cromwell  & nth otago WTF ?!?

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## veitnamcam

The wide variance in stats suggests poor sampling/too smaller counts on too few a days?

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## 223nut

> The wide variance in stats suggests poor sampling/too smaller counts on too few a days?


I failed stats in uni but that sounds about right

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## veitnamcam

> I failed stats in uni but that sounds about right


I failed school so had no chance of failing at uni !

Sent from my SM-A320Y using Tapatalk

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## nak

> The wide variance in stats suggests poor sampling/too smaller counts on too few a days?


Maybe..Or probably more likely considerable variation in how effective the virus was in different populations. We saw the same here in Aus when k5 was released, even with good rigour applied to the pre and post release counts, some sites registered no change whatsoever and other sites were up around the 45% reduction.

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## viper

Also  ( and I maybe wrong here ) but I don't think the releases done at different sites were all done at the same time ?
Some sites may have got better results because of better conditions at time of release.
This year winter arrived hard and fast with what seemed and a short autumn. Flies were there one week and almost gone the next so a major vector of transmitting the disease became pretty dormant.
Also with the cold weather I have noticed on some days very few visible rabbits moving about and interacting with each other or the environment so may have had an effect.

Each release site is suppose to have a 20 km radius that over laps with the next site to generate total coverage.
I am not a fan of virus's being released into our country so personally I hope it's a flop, the current control methods work fine if the farmer / land owner puts in the effort.
As a farmer I would be grateful for this version of the virus, it cost them nothing as tax payers and local councils paid for it from my understanding so any reduction in numbers is a bonus and free.

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## Flyblown

This whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. As pointed out earlier in the thread, a planned virus release that is only expected to kill between one third and one half of the rabbits is a complete waste of time. Its a short-term Band Aid at best. Add to that the obvious lack of hands on, proactive pest control by land owners, farm managers, tenants, etc, then the problem is just compounded. 

When I was down in Otago last year I couldn't believe what I was seeing in places. We don't see anything like that up here in the Waikato. 

My first experience of the rabbit problem was in the UK as a youngster, early to mid 80s. The rabbit numbers in Sussex and Surrey on the dairy farms were beyond comprehension, in the 70s as a boy they seemed to be consistent and wed shoot a few with our air rifles and catch them with dogs. But in the early 80s numbers just exploded for some reason, possibly due to a change in fertilizer regime and pasture improvement. 

On our farm, with the small fields and old hedgerows, the damage would extend into the pasture anywhere between 10m and 50m, eaten flat to the ground. It was worse where the fields were adjacent to the old copses on higher ground, that were left wooded eons ago. The impact on the dairy was significant and the businesses were struggling.

The old timers all remembered the myxomatosis outbreak in 1953 which wiped out almost every single rabbit in the country. But still there were a handful of survivors, plus those that were captured and kept out of harms way by sport shooters, and bob's yer uncle within 6-7 years the rabbit numbers were pretty much back to pre-myxo numbers. My grandpa went on about this time and time again, how incredible it was how they came back after not one was seen on the farm for over 2 years. 

But that outbreak gave the rabbits resistance, and subsequent myxo releases - mostly illegal - didn't have anything like the impact.

In 1981 as a young teenager I was given a 20ga single shot, two ferrets and a Jack Russell called Knob and told to go and kill rabbits. After a summer learning the habits of rabbits, and varying degrees of success with the ferrets, we added two greyhounds we got free from the dog racer down the road. Now we were really in business, man what a dog, they caught the rabbits the ferrets chased out of the warren. I gave up with Knob as he kept getting stuck down the hole and I got sick of digging him out with the backhoe.

When I got a bit older I earned a 12ga Franchi 5 shot semi-auto and an old .22 Hornet. By 1984 we were driving the old Series III Land Rover pickups around the farm at night, with huge aircraft lights bolted to the roof powered by an additional alternator and controlled by the passenger in the cab, with two shooters standing in the rear. We would collect that many rabbits in one night that the shooters would be standing on a carpet of bunnies three deep across the whole tray, we had to dig a pit with the backhoe for all the carcasses. My right shoulder was a constant shade of light green and grey from the constant whack of the Franchi. We got a couple of knackered Cortina MK4s and cut holes in the roof and took out the back seat, it was easier to stand and steady yourself, one shooter and two up front driving and working the light made for a productive night. 

Between the age of 13 and 17 we were out shooting rabbits in industrial numbers from vehicles from spring through to autumn, to the point at which it became too muddy. Then it was out on foot in winter with the dogs and ferrets, the .22 and a wee 410. In winter it was very productive to get the ferrets down into the depths of the warren, catch the largest and hardiest of the mature rabbits and the numbers the following spring were definitely reduced. It was pretty much a full time bloody job for a kid. One year, probably 1985, the myxo came back and clobbered the rabbits, wed find them hopping around the diary all pussed up and out of it, so wed hit them with a big stick and take the dead rabbit and stuff him down a fresh hole. But even then, numbers were only reduced by a bit, maybe a third max, then the following year it was all on again. 

Thats how we controlled rabbits. None of this sit back and wait for a new virus bollocks. If you wanted to maximise your revenue, you had to stay on top of them, god knows how much it cost in shells over the years, we shot thousands and thousands of rounds. 

I'd left England by the time calicivirus came along in the mid-90s, but it was exactly the same pattern - big wipeout followed by gradual resistance and a return to pre-release numbers. 

If there isnt a concerted effort by land owners in Otago to get experienced guns and dogs on the land working hard, theyre never gonna make the blindest bit of difference to rabbit numbers long-term. And the more farms and stations that get sold to eco-greeny American tech mega millionaires who want to hide away from Donald and his gang, the worse the problem will become! They are clueless!

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## Yukon

Headcase took me to one of the release sites near Tekapo, and after eight weeks it was still teeming with rabbit. There were a lot of wallabies too. I bloodied my new Troy PAR15 with a Pulsar Trail XP50. Very entertaining!

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## csmiffy

> Headcase took me to one of the release sites near Tekapo, and after eight weeks it was still teeming with rabbit. There were a lot of wallabies too. I bloodied my new Troy PAR15 with a Pulsar Trail XP50. Very entertaining!


Where? LOL

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## Yukon

I'm not sure, it was dark! And bloody cold. Ask Headcase.

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## Dermastor

Just back from shooting steel in the Mackenzie Country.  Talking to the station owner it is fast becoming evident that the virus release is a complete failure except the Nelson area where a different strain was used. Rabbit numbers are not reducing and there is very little evidence of the virus having any effect at all. This is not working and a complete waste of time. Keep shooting them guys.

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## Boaraxa

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...e-across-otago

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## Mooseman

> What is amazing is they are saying that they hope to achieve at least a 40 % kill on this new release. When I was still doing pest control work they always said you needed to be getting kill rates in the high 80 to 90 % to have any sort of effect on the populations. 40% will do very little except to promote increased breeding with the remaining population. 
> Back in the late 90's when it first hit my area in the BOP I had count lines established over 20km's of farmland and we counted the lines twice a year.
> The year the illegal release was done I had counted close to 1100 rabbits pre the virus within a week it had spread through the whole area and when the post count was done I counted 32 rabbits.
> We warned the farmers that these remaining rabbits would come back if left to there own devices, which they were and with a year and a half were back to pre virus levels. Problem now was you had rabbits that are resistant to any future releases. This is a different strain but 40 % is a pretty low kill rate I think. It will be interesting to see how it effects the populations over the coming months. One thing is for sure the rabbit will survive whatever man can throw at them.


It appears that what I said earlier is coming true. 40 % isn't enough of a kill to have any effect at all. New born and young  rabbits are born with  an immunity to disease the blood tests we did after the release in our area back in the late 90's confirmed that. One sure thing is that a concerted effort using poison and shooting will be a definite way to help control rabbits. Who knows the powers to be may decide to bring back Pest Destruction Boards, doing a full circle.

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## viper

This appeared in one of the local papers down here, the article is semi long with some interesting points being made.
I won't type it out as I am too lazy but took a photo of this summary of the new K5 virus and it's effect to date.
To be honest and they elude to it in the article these figures are perhaps not very accurate but it is a snap shot at the time.
I have kept the clipping so if anyone has any questions I will try to answer things as mentioned in the piece.
Hope the photo is clear enough to read for everyone.

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## 223nut

That's a huge spread of the stat's, got to wonder how there's is a 60% decline thats huge makes me think someone missed a decimal point in the calculations.

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## kukuwai

> This appeared in one of the local papers down here, the article is semi long with some interesting points being made.
> I won't type it out as I am too lazy but took a photo of this summary of the new K5 virus and it's effect to date.
> To be honest and they elude to it in the article these figures are perhaps not very accurate but it is a snap shot at the time.
> I have kept the clipping so if anyone has any questions I will try to answer things as mentioned in the piece.
> Hope the photo is clear enough to read for everyone.Attachment 89287


Well there is a lot of variance there isnt there. Good strike in Roxburgh, teviot & wanaka.  Negative effect in Queenstown, Cromwell  & nth otago WTF ?!?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

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## veitnamcam

The wide variance in stats suggests poor sampling/too smaller counts on too few a days?

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## 223nut

> The wide variance in stats suggests poor sampling/too smaller counts on too few a days?


I failed stats in uni but that sounds about right

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## veitnamcam

> I failed stats in uni but that sounds about right


I failed school so had no chance of failing at uni !

Sent from my SM-A320Y using Tapatalk

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## nak

> The wide variance in stats suggests poor sampling/too smaller counts on too few a days?


Maybe..Or probably more likely considerable variation in how effective the virus was in different populations. We saw the same here in Aus when k5 was released, even with good rigour applied to the pre and post release counts, some sites registered no change whatsoever and other sites were up around the 45% reduction.

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## viper

Also  ( and I maybe wrong here ) but I don't think the releases done at different sites were all done at the same time ?
Some sites may have got better results because of better conditions at time of release.
This year winter arrived hard and fast with what seemed and a short autumn. Flies were there one week and almost gone the next so a major vector of transmitting the disease became pretty dormant.
Also with the cold weather I have noticed on some days very few visible rabbits moving about and interacting with each other or the environment so may have had an effect.

Each release site is suppose to have a 20 km radius that over laps with the next site to generate total coverage.
I am not a fan of virus's being released into our country so personally I hope it's a flop, the current control methods work fine if the farmer / land owner puts in the effort.
As a farmer I would be grateful for this version of the virus, it cost them nothing as tax payers and local councils paid for it from my understanding so any reduction in numbers is a bonus and free.

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## Flyblown

This whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. As pointed out earlier in the thread, a planned virus release that is only expected to kill between one third and one half of the rabbits is a complete waste of time. Its a short-term Band Aid at best. Add to that the obvious lack of hands on, proactive pest control by land owners, farm managers, tenants, etc, then the problem is just compounded. 

When I was down in Otago last year I couldn't believe what I was seeing in places. We don't see anything like that up here in the Waikato. 

My first experience of the rabbit problem was in the UK as a youngster, early to mid 80s. The rabbit numbers in Sussex and Surrey on the dairy farms were beyond comprehension, in the 70s as a boy they seemed to be consistent and wed shoot a few with our air rifles and catch them with dogs. But in the early 80s numbers just exploded for some reason, possibly due to a change in fertilizer regime and pasture improvement. 

On our farm, with the small fields and old hedgerows, the damage would extend into the pasture anywhere between 10m and 50m, eaten flat to the ground. It was worse where the fields were adjacent to the old copses on higher ground, that were left wooded eons ago. The impact on the dairy was significant and the businesses were struggling.

The old timers all remembered the myxomatosis outbreak in 1953 which wiped out almost every single rabbit in the country. But still there were a handful of survivors, plus those that were captured and kept out of harms way by sport shooters, and bob's yer uncle within 6-7 years the rabbit numbers were pretty much back to pre-myxo numbers. My grandpa went on about this time and time again, how incredible it was how they came back after not one was seen on the farm for over 2 years. 

But that outbreak gave the rabbits resistance, and subsequent myxo releases - mostly illegal - didn't have anything like the impact.

In 1981 as a young teenager I was given a 20ga single shot, two ferrets and a Jack Russell called Knob and told to go and kill rabbits. After a summer learning the habits of rabbits, and varying degrees of success with the ferrets, we added two greyhounds we got free from the dog racer down the road. Now we were really in business, man what a dog, they caught the rabbits the ferrets chased out of the warren. I gave up with Knob as he kept getting stuck down the hole and I got sick of digging him out with the backhoe.

When I got a bit older I earned a 12ga Franchi 5 shot semi-auto and an old .22 Hornet. By 1984 we were driving the old Series III Land Rover pickups around the farm at night, with huge aircraft lights bolted to the roof powered by an additional alternator and controlled by the passenger in the cab, with two shooters standing in the rear. We would collect that many rabbits in one night that the shooters would be standing on a carpet of bunnies three deep across the whole tray, we had to dig a pit with the backhoe for all the carcasses. My right shoulder was a constant shade of light green and grey from the constant whack of the Franchi. We got a couple of knackered Cortina MK4s and cut holes in the roof and took out the back seat, it was easier to stand and steady yourself, one shooter and two up front driving and working the light made for a productive night. 

Between the age of 13 and 17 we were out shooting rabbits in industrial numbers from vehicles from spring through to autumn, to the point at which it became too muddy. Then it was out on foot in winter with the dogs and ferrets, the .22 and a wee 410. In winter it was very productive to get the ferrets down into the depths of the warren, catch the largest and hardiest of the mature rabbits and the numbers the following spring were definitely reduced. It was pretty much a full time bloody job for a kid. One year, probably 1985, the myxo came back and clobbered the rabbits, wed find them hopping around the diary all pussed up and out of it, so wed hit them with a big stick and take the dead rabbit and stuff him down a fresh hole. But even then, numbers were only reduced by a bit, maybe a third max, then the following year it was all on again. 

Thats how we controlled rabbits. None of this sit back and wait for a new virus bollocks. If you wanted to maximise your revenue, you had to stay on top of them, god knows how much it cost in shells over the years, we shot thousands and thousands of rounds. 

I'd left England by the time calicivirus came along in the mid-90s, but it was exactly the same pattern - big wipeout followed by gradual resistance and a return to pre-release numbers. 

If there isnt a concerted effort by land owners in Otago to get experienced guns and dogs on the land working hard, theyre never gonna make the blindest bit of difference to rabbit numbers long-term. And the more farms and stations that get sold to eco-greeny American tech mega millionaires who want to hide away from Donald and his gang, the worse the problem will become! They are clueless!

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## Yukon

Headcase took me to one of the release sites near Tekapo, and after eight weeks it was still teeming with rabbit. There were a lot of wallabies too. I bloodied my new Troy PAR15 with a Pulsar Trail XP50. Very entertaining!

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## csmiffy

> Headcase took me to one of the release sites near Tekapo, and after eight weeks it was still teeming with rabbit. There were a lot of wallabies too. I bloodied my new Troy PAR15 with a Pulsar Trail XP50. Very entertaining!


Where? LOL

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## Yukon

I'm not sure, it was dark! And bloody cold. Ask Headcase.

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## Dermastor

Just back from shooting steel in the Mackenzie Country.  Talking to the station owner it is fast becoming evident that the virus release is a complete failure except the Nelson area where a different strain was used. Rabbit numbers are not reducing and there is very little evidence of the virus having any effect at all. This is not working and a complete waste of time. Keep shooting them guys.

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## Boaraxa

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...e-across-otago

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## Mooseman

> What is amazing is they are saying that they hope to achieve at least a 40 % kill on this new release. When I was still doing pest control work they always said you needed to be getting kill rates in the high 80 to 90 % to have any sort of effect on the populations. 40% will do very little except to promote increased breeding with the remaining population. 
> Back in the late 90's when it first hit my area in the BOP I had count lines established over 20km's of farmland and we counted the lines twice a year.
> The year the illegal release was done I had counted close to 1100 rabbits pre the virus within a week it had spread through the whole area and when the post count was done I counted 32 rabbits.
> We warned the farmers that these remaining rabbits would come back if left to there own devices, which they were and with a year and a half were back to pre virus levels. Problem now was you had rabbits that are resistant to any future releases. This is a different strain but 40 % is a pretty low kill rate I think. It will be interesting to see how it effects the populations over the coming months. One thing is for sure the rabbit will survive whatever man can throw at them.


It appears that what I said earlier is coming true. 40 % isn't enough of a kill to have any effect at all. New born and young  rabbits are born with  an immunity to disease the blood tests we did after the release in our area back in the late 90's confirmed that. One sure thing is that a concerted effort using poison and shooting will be a definite way to help control rabbits. Who knows the powers to be may decide to bring back Pest Destruction Boards, doing a full circle.

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