As mentioned before, we have a bit of a rabbit plague. In rural areas like ours, rabbits are regarded as a pest because they destroy crops. So far, our zillion seem to be content to co-habit with the birds, dig little holes everywhere and look cute. They are also quite good lawnmowers, so I have decided on a truce; after all we have a bit in common.
Rabbits are not natural to Australia, but neither are white people.
jmgoyder 
If they didn’t look so cute and cuddly no one would have any qualms about getting rid of them.
I know! When I go out in the early evening and they are hopping in amongst the birds it looks like a picture of heaven. If they were rats I wouldn’t be so enamoured – ha!
I have then all over my place too. I have a wireless radio fence to contain my dogs and the rabbits know exactly where the boundary is. Right now my dogs are barking like crazy at a rabbit 3 feet from them. Dumb like a fox.
Ha!
Wow! That’s unusual in the fact that we are also having a plague of rabbits in NE Texas. Yes, if they weren’t so cute…The deer population is also large, and they are eating many of my yard plants at night instead of staying in the woods.
The farm and ranch stores carry an organic animal repellant in pump spray form that stinks to high heaven, but it helps.
That’s funny about the radio fence!
Were rabbits brought over there in the early days?
Dunno…I have no clue about the history of rabbits here. It’s interesting that you do, though.
It’s incredible to think that the zillions of rabbits we have here in Australia were non-existent a few hundred years ago. They’re so cute, but if overseas viewers could see how they’ve decimated the countryside, they wouldn’t like them so much.
I have even seen a fox running down my back lane in the inner city. I wish the early settlers hadn’t bought all these birds and animals out to Australia in the late 1790s, they’re competing for food with our indigenous animals.
Yes, I completely agree, and those settlers brought them out primarily to hunt them for sport. It is a weird world!
Early settlers had no idea what they were doing! We have the same problem here with pest species unleashed and wreaking havoc on the indigenous flora and fauna! The two worst that come to mind at the moment are KUDZU (it grows a foot a day!) and Starlings who invade other birds nests and replace their eggs with their own! ~ Lynda
Haha, that last line cracked me up!
We have lots of rabbits here too and they make good snacks for the coyotes…
A free lawn mover… never chase them just train them to get an even cut….
I love Thumper:)
isn’t is annoying when something so cute is a pest
speaking of such – the cat is meowing to get in and get fed — another example of a cute pest
I know … rabbit can really be troublesome and then they are so cute – the thing is that they are getting more and more by the day nearly. I wouldn’t be able to do anything with them.
Do have them there too?
Julie, they are all over the world .. I think and in millions! We have some in our parks here in Landskrona – and hares too.
Argh!
I know … they are a problem, but so cute and soft.
Fine pictures of a lawn mower.
awwww so cute!!!!!!!
Good point and well made! I recently saw a comic strip where some white guy is commenting about immigrants and how he wants them to leave Canada. And there’s an Indian chief looking at him and he says, “good idea, want me to help you pack?”
Very similar situation here with racism against original inhabitants but whoops now I’m getting political – ha!
We don’t have too many this year. They like to eat the flowers more than the grass 😦
Some of the farms in NZ are being decimated by rabbits too.. there used to be piles around here too (not a plague tho) but since i got the barn cats their numbers have dropped dramatically.. same with the ground squirrels sadly.. cute shots, I am not so cute on rabbits though.. c
Yes, we have had a population explosion here in the city. Sure have chewed the bark on the trees here but I enjoy turning a corner and watchng them hop along the road. Good comment on the white people not being native to the land.
If they are cute, they are not a pest, and if they are beautiful, they are not a weed. That’s my philosophy in life.
Good philosophy!
I have never liked rabbts tome they are not soft and cute they are annoying…………lol
Around here, in Southern Vermont, they also plague folks because they eat their gardens. I’ve been fortunate not to have them trouble me, but then again I have 3 avid patrolling dogs. I do love them and your photographs are adorable!
Thank you for the very fun post, Julie! 🙂
While they are soft and cuddly, they can be a problem, but uhmmmm fried rabbit is actually quite good. (probably got into trouble with THAT statement).
Don’t worry – if I knew how to shoot I would do so and we could live on fried rabbit for the next few decades!
They are cute… and can be a breeding machine! 🙂
Great thought Julie, rabbits aren’t the only non-native to pillage and destroy in alot of countries – and they don’t do it because they want to – they’re simply surviving. Do you have myxomatosis in Oz? Every few years it sweeps through the UK and decimates the rabbit population. Then it rapidly recovers and the cycle starts all over again.
Yes we get the same thing, Finn, with the myxa onslaught every few years. Obviously this year it isn’t happenig and the cycle is well and truly cycling!
Darned interlopers. They take over!:):)
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