Rabbits invade Morningside complex
Residents in Morningside complex have had enough of their healthy, vibrant bunny population.
It will dawn as an uncomfortable realisation for many bunny-loving members of the greater Sandton community to learn that rabbits are not native to South Africa.
Concerned by the great number of rabbits occupying the grounds of the Inner Circle residential complex on May 28, residents asked Meahni Pieterse from the Berario Bunnies rescue organisation to share further insight.
Pieterse explained that rabbits breed fast and have a litter every 28 days, usually four to eight babies but can be as many as 12. Furthermore, rabbits conceive on the same day they give birth.
“It has become so common to find feral or pet rabbits in our parks, streets and properties, that most people now believe they are wildlife part of our ecosystem when they are not,” Pieterse said.
“The big issue in SA though is the feral pet rabbit population, which originated from the exotic rabbits that have been dumped (‘set free’) by people who are too uneducated to realise they are not indigenous and don’t belong in our ecosystem.”
Pieterse said rabbits have no particular season for mating.
“It is so important to prevent the breeding entirely because your two bunnies will very soon become 20 bunnies, and 20 become 50. If you have pet rabbits, you must ensure that they are sexed by more than one professional – as even vets sex them wrong from time to time. Get them sterilised because once they are old enough to breed, they pretty much breed non-stop.”
The process of sterilising rabbits is a costly one, Pieterse said, as, it can only be done by an experienced vet – and there are not many vets who sterilise them.
“When you have only a handful it’s still affordable, get the community to contribute, but don’t leave it. In cases where people sadly do not want them at all, they can contact their local SPCA who will then ‘send them to heaven’.”
Resident Sally Burra-Robinson said, “It was cute, before, when we had about five or six but it’s now out of control,” Burra-Robinson said. “We can’t afford sterilisation now as it’s s out of control. Ideally, what we want to do is give them to Field and Study Park.”
Fellow resident Yvonne Kahn said the complex’s environment had been devastated by the rabbits’ grazing.
“They eat anything, they’re not fussy; they eat the roots, they just go crazy,” said Kahn. “We’ve got plants over there with mesh around them because the ones without mesh have been eaten right down to the stem. We have lavender bushes all destroyed, half of them pulled out.”
Related article: Protecting the local bunny population at Parkmore
