alt.devilbunnies - you know who you are!

[malada]

Cute fluffers are taking over in Florida

"A community in South Florida has an adorable problem on its hands.

Dozens of domesticated bunnies have overrun parts of Wilton Manors, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. Two years after a resident let loose lionhead rabbits from their backyard, according to local lore, the number of rabbits now outnumber the 81 homes in the Jenada Isle neighborhood."

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/23/1189630073/florida-rabbit-rescue-suburb

So if you go to Florida, pack your Moxie, your fire axe and vanilla along with your sunscreen.

-m

Comments

[acelightning73]

The invasive (released-pets pythons, which are a problem) will eat the invasive rabbits.

[reynardo]

Australia would like to prove you wrong about that :-)

[acelightning73]

In Australia, the wild brumbies were driven extinct by rabbits, and the government introduced a virus called "myxedema" or "The WHite Blindness" to kill the rabbits (it kills slowly and painfully). It also killed a lot of pet cats. And when I got home from Australia, I changed my clothes and took a shower before sayin hello to our pet rabbits.

And Australia's snakes weren't introduced by pet owners who didn't want to bother any more and who figured a pet released into the jungle would be able to make its own way. (Florida's pythons and boas are former pets. I think Australia's snakes either swam across from New Guinea or were there when the continent broke away from Gondwana.

[reynardo]

I'm not sure where you got your information from. Myxedema is a thyroid condition. Myxomatosis, or "the white blindness", affects rabbits only - it has no effect on cats. Also, as the wild brumbies (horses) are also an introduced pest species (and still running wild in certain places in Australia), the rabbits didn't drive them extinct. In fact, we've still got control programs for the brumbies.

Although depending on the time between handling rabbit items here in Aus and getting to your own rabbits, changing your clothes was probably a wise idea. Just like here - when you arrive in Aus, you have to declare whether you were on a farm at all before you landed (and if you were, the officers at the airport will disinfect your boots for you).

My comment about the snakes was just that the snakes did not kill all the rabbits. You're right in that the Australian snakes are native to here, although we are considered one of the remnants of Gondwana (not broken off from it) and the snakes were here when the big part broke up.

[acelightning73]

The pythons and boas in Florida were not native to the Everglades. People thought it would be cool to have a pet constrictor, but discovered it was awkward to feed them and snakes can be a lot of work. So they figured big snakes live in the jungle, so we can just let this one go wild and it will survive. But then the native species of big predators get out-competed.

When I landed in Oz, they didn't like the snacks I'd brought to eat on the plane. No raw fruits or vegetables or anything like that - just some cupcakes. But I bought snacks on my way to my hotel in downtown Melb. I loved Melbourne, and I'd go again if I could afford to.