2020 Breeding season

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Well here we are again, the breeding season for rabbits in New Zealand will be well under way! In order to see those young rabbits in Central Otago in August it means the mating will be happening now in June. 28 day gestation period for rabbits (pregnant again within 12 hours of having a litter), a few weeks in the nest then come August out they come.

If your planning a poison drop then best you get on with it if you want maximum success, the reason is straight forward, if you leave it till August the young rabbits can survive without mum but are to young to take bait.

We had a visitor for a couple of weeks, old Bolt came up for a holiday while Evalynn was away. He enjoyed getting out for a few runs with the team smashing a few rabbits around camp. Of course him and Jack said gidday to each other then where straight back to their old ways, growling, barking and snapping at each other.
Bolt’s looking a bit more grey and has slowed down a lot but is enjoying retirement.

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The Neighbours Rabbits

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Turns out the neighbours to our block have a bit of a rabbit problem, this video was shot last night on our Pulsar Trail XP. It’s a bit hazy as there was a little fog around which thermal scopes don’t like.

https://youtu.be/LGXXVD9lcVM

This is the reason everyone needs to do their bit when it comes to rabbits. This video was filmed at the top of Lake Dunstan maybe 200 metres from the lake itself.

Stephen

Rabbits 2020

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There is rabbits, a lot of rabbits in Central Otago, but not just there either. Coastal Otago, Millers Flat and the Teviot Valley. Just the whole of Otago in general has rabbit numbers climbing and in some areas quite quickly.

I’ve been doing battle a lot with Otago Regional Council (ORC), trying to find out why they are not issuing compliance notices on any government departments including department of conservation, LINZ etc same goes for district councils.

Often these are the areas that create the broader rabbit problems in an area. To say progress is slow is a massive understatement, it seems councillors and all the other middle management just don’t understand, well quite frankly, much at all. In fact considering they are councillors and management it should be of grave concern to rate payers and central government (but realistically are they any better themselves?)

Does the next step include the EPA or court? Looking more and more like it sadly, I have better things to be doing than wet nursing a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats.

Stay safe
Stephen

Levi

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Meet Levi the bat eared whippet, not a year old yet and already a stunning rabbiter. God knows what he will be capable of by the time he’s two or three! I’m really looking forward to seeing him develop.

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And yes, that is another whippet pup in the background, of course I’m keeping one!
Plus the kids talked me into keeping an extra from another litter, these are out of Patch by Jack with the black nutsack.
So much for cutting the dog numbers down, but there’s a few heading towards retirement age so need to get their replacements operational.

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So as you can imagine it’s been kaos around here, two litters five days apart and of course lockdown has meant they have been here a lot longer than normal.

Stay Safe
Stephen

Thunder

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A very happy lurcher!

But she is moody at the moment. The full whippet has a litter of pups and Thunder keeps trying to mother them as well as being grumpy with the other dogs.

Jack

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One extremely happy dog is Jack, beautiful day, dispatched some rabbits, found a hedgehog to kill and for the real kicker, found something really really nasty to roll in making himself smell wonderful.