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I was out on some of my land today for a walk and my lurcher picked up 3 mixy bunnies,ive never seen them here before to be honest and the land is infested with rabbits,but in saying tat i was never out there in the summer ,,do you think its just to do with the hot weather or wat
regards ross
Macnas
Mixy is more prevelant in the warmer months, no doubt about that, but I've seen in during winter as well.
I think rabbits in general are developing a certain amount of immunity to mixy, as the populations are growing every year.
DitchShitter
Macnas wrote:
Mixy is more prevelant in the warmer months, no doubt about that, but I've seen in during winter as well.
I think rabbits in general are developing a certain amount of immunity to mixy, as the populations are growing every year.
Fleas are more active in summer too, mate
Interesting issue about immunity. My only experiance is that, around me, there simply are no rabbits. 'Local Intelligance' reports that myxi put paid to them in the 90's?
When I was in uk, my last experiance was that those who got it got it almost to the original level. Physically / outwardly at least. Like, I'd find rabbits with the 'Bee Sting' eyes. F*cking terrible!
I did recently see a field alive with bun's, over Longford way. At a drive past they all seemed healthy as hell to me. I don't get out there often but shall try to spot them next time I'm that way. Shame they can't push over a bit more!
Macnas
I've found rabbits with what looks like, to my inexpert eye, signs of recovery from mixy, that is healed lesions, lumpy ears and old cists around the eyes.
Also bucks that have "withered" testes, thereby, I would imagine, making them sterile for all intents and purposes.
Of course, there may be other diseases that rabbits contract that could cause such things.
But in the main, there is far less of it now than there used to be, at least in this corner of Cork.
DitchShitter
Not disputing for a moment that some of them survive it mate. As ye say, we're not experts and can couch our observations inly in laymans terms. But certainly the consencus amongst british Field Sportsmen, who've collectively studied the results of the original outbreak for what ammounts to half a century, seems to be that some get over it. There's also talk ~ perhaps too blythely accepted? ~ of some rabbits deveoping a level of immunity which they then pass on in their genes.
Quite honestly, I don't personally know if I think that last one holds up to too much scrutiny. I mean, immunity of a geneticaly inherrited nature? Would it ebb and flow down the generations? Rats, once they develope just such immunity to an Active Ingrediant in a certain bait, certainly appear to bloody well hang onto it They and their offspring can then dine out of Bromadialone with complete impunity
Rabbits / Myxi however is said ~ in britain at least ~ to be cyclicle. I can't remember the favoured proscription. But it might be three or even five yearly cycles? People tend to claim something like; There's an outbreak and it drops the population of a locallity like a door. Then some survive / recover / 'develope immunity' and these breed up to recolonise that lacality. Then, after the given number of years? Fresh outbreak and off we go again.
See what I consider the anomaly in their thinking, mate? If those rabbits had Immunity, why were they then succeptable to the same disease a few years down the line? But, as has been said, we're not scientists. We can't test blood samples and grow cultures in petri dishes ~ even if I Do still have a little ongoing experiment on my kitchen window frame! :mrgreen:
How all that may pertain to the Irish experiance, I don't know. I only have the slimmest of vague, annecdotal information to extrapolate from. I wasn't here in the 70's and 80's. So I have no idea what things were like before myxi struck - as I'm told it did - in the 90's.
Good, thought provoking discussion this one, eh? I'll leave it there, for now. Hopefully you lads can put some more in and we can all chew some more? Plenty to be said about it, I'm sure
frankie
mixi hit my patch 16 years ago and wiped it out a place that had hundreds of bunnys and 2 this day theres not a single rabbit on that land
DitchShitter
Sixteen years ago and no recovery? Frankie; That ties in pretty well seamlessly with what I understand to be the situation here in Co. Leitrim! Damndest thing. Or is it?
This now has me wondering; 'How did it go in the old days, in england?' There, surely, must be a pattern / blue print for us to study ~ if we can only find a copy?
England lost its rabbits too. Now it has them back - to a degree. I wonder just when (how long it took) between the genocide of the early fifties and now(ish) ~ let's say a fifty year period? Simplicity and sake of arguement?
But, having said that; I remember rabbits could be pretty well 'present' even twenty five years ago, in uk. So That gives us a figure of around twenty five years between 99% knock down and reasonably annoying numbers.
Another decade then for the Irish rabbits to recolonise and cover this land? On the surface, even that seems fanciful. But then, I have hoards of them twenty five miles away. I see them - individually - less than Five miles away. They " Breed like rabbits " anyway ..... I reckon it's possible ...
We Really need to get some more thoughts into this one. It's one juicy bone!
,,do you think its just to do with the hot weather or wat
Sixteen years ago and no recovery? Frankie; That ties in pretty well seamlessly with what I understand to be the situation here in Co. Leitrim! Damndest thing.