THE RABBIT PEST

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2116, 26 June 1907, Page 1

THE RABBIT PEST

NOVEL MEANS OF DESTRUCTION Mr. AA r . Rodier, Tamlnia, Cobar, N.S.AAk, forwards a leaflet dealing with the rabbit pest, headed: “The Male Rabbit.—The Saviour of Australia.” Following is tho text of the leaflet:— 1. The rabbits are polygamous. 2. Because of being polygamous tlroy have become a pest. 3. This polygamy is caused by the use of the spring trap and poison cart. : 4. It is impossible for them to be a pest and at the same time polyandrous. The spring • trap and poison carts kill more males than females, this causes the rabbits that are not caught to live in a polygamous state, because of being polygamous the females are very much more prolific than they otherwise would be and produce more females than males. Consequently anything that kills tho males increases the pest and acts in the same way as the proverbial snowball or the notorious chain letter, the longer they are continued the greater becomes the volume of the rabbits, and that is why the rabbits have spread from Southern Victoria well into Queensland and AVest Australia in spite of tho hundreds of thousands of millions that havo been killed or died by tho droughts. Tho remedy is to make the rabbits polyandrous, and to do this only such plans as catch the rabbits-alive should bo used, then kill all females and liberate all males, and for convenience sake cut off half the near ear of all males let go, so that they will be known if caught a second time.