Australia is a country that does not have a sense of existence in the minds of many people, which is closely related to its geographical location.
As a country that is entirely in the southern hemisphere, it is relatively distant from the outside world, because the center of the world economy and exchange has basically been in the northern hemisphere.
It is also because of this isolated overseas situation that Australia's ecology is also in a relatively isolated state, many very old species can still be found here, and the local is basically because these uncommon animals have left a deep impression on foreign tourists, of course, there are many common species here, such as the rabbit we are going to talk about today.
The flood of rabbits
However, from the perspective of species evolution, in fact, ordinary species are not ordinary for Australia, because its environment does not have any communication channels with the outside world, and the species with indigenous characteristics have basically evolved independently, and the emergence of these ordinary species is strictly contrary to common sense.
You might say that it's not simple, Australia is a little bit geographically biased, but it is not completely uninformed with the outside world, the introduction of species is very common for a country, indeed, these species were indeed introduced at a specific time, and this introduction is of course inseparable from the Age of Discovery and world trade.
In fact, since the discovery of the Australian continent in the 17th century, new species have begun to enter the local ecosystem with the arrival of these aliens.
It doesn't matter if there are more animals on such a large continent, but the problem is that these non-native species have no natural enemies and are independent of the food chain, so they began to multiply in large quantities, and there was a problem of flooding one after another.
Among the examples of the proliferation of these species, the rabbit is a very typical case.
According to historical records, rabbits officially landed on the Australian mainland in the mid-to-late 19th century, it is said that it was brought to the local area by an Englishman, the initial number was only more than 20, but after more than a century of breeding, this number became more than 10 billion, becoming the most serious species flooding event in Australia.
The reason for this flooding is also obvious, first of all, these rabbits from the United Kingdom are obviously very satisfied with the local environmental conditions, and the warm and dry grassland is ideal as a survival base, so these rabbits can adapt in a short period of time and start to breed.
In addition, as an alien species, they have no substantial connection with other native animals, and there is no threat of natural enemies, so daily life is to eat, mate and then breed, let alone rabbits, and if any animal survives in this pattern, there will be a flooding result.
Normally, pressure from the food chain will keep the population of a particular species at a suitable level, not disappear completely, but not beyond what nature and the biosphere can carry.
However, because of the lack of awareness of this phenomenon at that time, it did not pay enough attention to the surge in rabbit population, and did not realize the seriousness of the problem until the flood, but it was difficult to deal with it at this time.
Solve the problem of flooding
In order to solve the flood of rabbits, the first method adopted by the Australian government is the natural enemy strategy, since these rabbits are so arrogant because there is no natural enemy, then artificially arrange natural enemies for them and solve the problem in the most natural way.
At that time, the fox was introduced as a species, because it was one of the biggest natural enemies of the rabbit, but the final effect did not meet people's expectations, the fox did not eat these rabbits, but became a new alien species, relying on local resources to become a new flood species.
No way, the government began to take the method of artificial extinguishing, the large-scale hunting of rabbits, but in the face of the number of 10 billion, the efficiency of hunting is too low.
No way, they have thought of various ways, such as poisoning these rabbits, just like we put rat poison, although this method seems feasible, but at the beginning of the implementation of the problem, many other animals because of the accidental consumption of these poisons died, the ecological impact on the region, so had to give up this method.
Many people may have such a thought, rabbit is a very common food in China, everyone likes to eat, Australians can actually turn these rabbits into food on their own table, and solve the problem of flooding, but also enjoy delicious, kill two birds with one stone, why not enjoy it?
The bunny is so cute that it must be delicious for barbecue
The crayfish that we all seek today went from flooding to being developed into a delicacy, and according to some historical sources, Europeans first brought rabbits here not to play as pets, but to make them into dishes.
Friends who have been abroad should know that rabbit meat is very common in large and small supermarkets in Europe, and even much more common than in China, indicating that this habit still has a certain history.
Many Australians today are descendants of immigrants and should have had this diet, but we still rarely see large-scale rabbit meat sales in the local Australian market.
The reason is also very simple, there are too many rabbits, even if everyone goes to eat, it is difficult to complete this difficult task in a short period of time.
How nice it would be if we had this kind of trouble too...
epilogue
For the Australian government, if you want to solve the problem of rabbit flooding, you need more research and discussion, both to achieve quantity control, but also to avoid adverse effects on other organisms and the environment itself, which requires a long period of planning and implementation, waiting for the effect is not a day or two things, and more headache is that rabbits are not the only species that flood here, the government has to deal with multiple similar problems, must take into account the entire environment.
Yes! Spicy rabbit diced walking