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Experts say farms throughout Spain have turned into Jurassic Park
As if the ongoing threat of wildfires and drought weren’t enough to concern agricultural workers, a new and rather unlikely enemy is turning farms into scenes reminiscent of Jurassic Park: hybrid rabbits.
According to the Coordinator of Organisations of Farmers and Ranchers (COAG), these animals are a cross between wild and domestic rabbits and droves of the voracious beasts are currently plaguing 10 autonomous communities and more than 1,400 municipalities.
It’s an “alarming situation that is leading many farms to the brink of ruin,” the Ministry of Agriculture explained, adding that so far, the hybrid rabbits have destroyed one million hectares of land with losses estimated at more than 800 million euros.
Native wild rabbits are no friend to farmers since they routinely gobble up cereal crops and grass borders, but this is nothing compared to the hybrid species, which has been specifically cross bred to improve fertility and growth. As well as reproducing far more often, each litter contains between 12 and 14 babies, and these hybrids are insatiable. What’s more, they’ve even been known to climb trees, something unheard of 20 years ago.
Who is to blame?
Javier Fatás from COAG believes the fault lies with ordinary citizens, who release pet rabbits into the wild when they tire of them, but he also stressed that regional governments have played a part by trying “to artificially shape the natural world, allowing the proliferation of rabbits without control to feed endangered species such as the lynx.”
“The situation has gotten out of hand,” he warned.
What is the solution?
COAG has met with the Ministry of Agriculture this week to discuss different population control methods that could be employed, such as hunting and sterilisation. An Operational Group for the Prevention of Agricultural Damage from Rabbits (Preveco) has also been set up, which continues to experiment with different techniques like fences, ultrasonic deterrents and repellents.
The hybrid rabbits aren’t fussy eaters, and happily munch through olive, almond, cereal and grape crops at an alarming rate.
“We are walking a tightrope. Any municipality in our region may have suffered losses of between 80,000 and 90,000 euros due to the overpopulation of rabbits,” lamented Madrid farmer Julián Barco.
Image: Pixabay
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