The Rabbit: An Invasive Species in Australia

Invasive species are as the name suggests. They are species that invade the ecosystem of the native species. According to the U.S Department of Agriculture invasive species are defined, "As per   Executive Order 13112 (Section 1. Definitions)   an "invasive species" is a species that is: 1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and, 2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health". Invasive species are important to recognize because of the environmental impacts that they can place on different areas. Invasive species over power native species and can actually end up killing off the entire species if they are not handled correctly. In addition to being potentially harmful to the environment and causing ecosystem collapses this also affects economical and political spheres as well. Invasive species, as defined by the U.S Department of Agriculture can be all shapes and sizes. If an invasive species of insect or crop is introduced to an area and they overpower or overwhelm the native species and potentially kill of entire crops and cause a detriment in farming and agriculture stock. This furthermore creates a chain reaction of events that can lead to raised prices on certain foods as they become scarce due to the invasive species.  

The reason why a simple and cute creature like a rabbit is a threat to the ecosystem and native species of Australia is because of reproduction and other factors. Though a rabbit is a simple and cute creature to most people there are attributes that can be costly in rabbits to people such as those who work in agriculture or preserve native species. The rabbit, specifically the European rabbit, is damaging to Australia’s crops and livestock as they are able to thrive far too much in the uninterrupted environment they have in Australia. Though this small species was brought to Australia for hunting game they quickly spread like wildfire due to their ability to survive without much resistance and their ability to breed quickly. A rabbit like the European rabbit is able to eat much of the floral and fauna that is in Australia and hurts other species as they take over the land and eat food that other species would eat as well.  

The ultimate effects of rabbits came down to their ability to overgraze. Overgrazing is way in which an animal begins to eat too much of the area in which they live. The rabbits graze the pasture and plants that are in their land and because of this caused erosion. The type of erosion that was caused by the rabbits being invasive species was called soil erosion. As they were eating too much due to their massive amounts of population numbers they were overeating the land and thus caused the coverage produced by plants to be gone. When plants and grass are gone and there is only the soil left it is subject to harsh climates without cover. Without the cover of the plants and grass the soil starts to deteriorate and become dry and contain less nutrient. Due to the soil erosion other plants and animals were being affected as their own ability to eat and to live was being jeopardized. Overgrazing is something that is caused by a variety of animals but when native animals overgraze they become checked and balanced by their natural predators. When a certain native species becomes too much to a population their predators take care of them. In the situation with a invasive species the ability to handle their over population needs to be taken by human force instead of relying on the food web of nature to take its course.

This is the result of overgrazing. According to the website pestSMART which is powered by the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, their article, "Economic and environmental impacts of rabbits in Australia" details the way in which the effects of overgrazing due to European rabbits leads to crop failure and soil erosion. In the picture the canola crops are ruined due to overgrazing which causes the aforementioned chain reaction. A crop of canola plant is failed and then the price of canola rises due to a shortage and demand for the crop.

The ways in which invasive species, in general, are typically all handled the same but with species specific functions. In the situation of the rabbits many ways of trying to mitigate and stop the reproduction or lives of the invasive species is through exterminations. In order to try to minimize the populations the way in which to effectively get rid of the rabbits is to stop them from reproducing. According to pestSMART the variety of ways of controlling these rabbits is to:

•  Trapping using soft net traps 
•  Trapping of rabbits using padded-jaw traps 
•  Ground shooting of rabbits 
•  Overview of poison baiting for rabbit control 
•  Ground baiting of rabbits with sodium fluoroacetate (1080) 
•  Aerial baiting of rabbits with sodium fluroacetate (1080) 
•  Ground baiting of rabbits with pindone 
•  Bait delivery of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV1) K5 strain 
•  Overview of rabbit warren and harbour destruction 
•  Rabbit warren destruction by ripping 
•  Rabbit warren destruction using explosives 
•  Diffusion fumigation of rabbit warrens 

 https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/how-european-rabbits-took-over-australia/ 

 https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/what-are-invasive-species 

 https://pestsmart.org.au/toolkit-resource/economic-and-environmental-impacts-of-rabbits-in-australia/