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The bamboo Jane of Yuanxi
Editor|Yuanxi's bamboo Jane
The Australian hare plague has been a struggle between the local people and the government for 150 years.
There have been many "human-rabbit wars", and then the losing side is always human, what is going on?
In the face of a hare-infested situation, it is inevitable to make people wonder, rabbits are obviously a delicacy, but why don't Australians eat it?
And why are these flooded hares so rampant on Australian soil?
Trace historical roots
In history, Australia has been occupied by British aggression for a long time, controlled by Britain for a long time, and naturally influenced by Britain in customs and culture.
It is easy to think that the "hare disaster" situation is related to the historical British colonization? That's right, it's related.
In 1788, because the British loved rabbits, they brought them to the land of Australia in the southern hemisphere.
So that the rabbits can accompany them all the time in Australia.
The British regard rabbits as good companions for humans, but according to the rules, they have to keep rabbits in captivity on the east coast of Australia.
So it did not cause a "hare disaster" situation.
However, some wealthy manor owners will keep a few rabbits on their estates for recreational hunting in their leisure time.
But what I didn't expect was that it still left endless disasters to the 21st century today, which has become Australia's biggest headache.
Rabbits are animals, one, not running around like ordinary poultry, and second, they do not make any noise, coupled with the domestication of humans, rabbits are becoming more and more well-behaved.
So it's such a well-behaved rabbit, why does it cause trouble for Australia?
This rabbit is not another rabbit, this kind of rabbit is well-behaved and obedient, but the "hare" is the culprit that causes the disaster.
How did the hare appear on Australian soil? It starts with Thomas Os, a farmer.
One day in 1859, Thomas received 24 hares from England.
Unaware Thomas, thinking that it was an ordinary rabbit, accepted it very happily.
But when he went back to Thomas, he found that these 24 rabbits were all lively and active, sensitive in movement, and extremely strong, which was not a regular rabbit at all.
This gave Thomas a novel idea - to treat them as hunting objects.
Because Thomas has always loved hunting, the thrilling feeling makes him want to stop.
But Australia's own rabbits are too docile to be challenging, which makes Thomas very upset.
Until the appearance of these 24 hares, Thomas's eyes lit up, and he thought: Now some of them are playing.
But Thomas did not expect to bring such great trouble to his country, even disaster.
Many farmers like Thomas hunted rabbits.
In fact, in ancient China, there were also such customs, which were very exciting and interesting entertainment for hunters.
After hunting the hare, Thomas strongly recommended it to his friends.
The thrill of hunting hares is unmatched by other ordinary rabbits.
In this way, ten and ten, ten and hundred, in the hunting circle began to hunt hare widely, the sense of experience is also a first-class rod.
It didn't take long for the market demand for hares to surge.
Seeing such a big business opportunity, everyone turned around and began to raise hares and sell them in the market to obtain benefits.
In everyone's eyes, rabbits are full of treasures.
Sales channels are also widespread, rabbit hair can be woven into clothes, meat can be eaten, and can be sold to hunters.
In fact, it sounds like all this is normal, but when a large group of people raise hares, the supply quickly overflows and gradually becomes uncontrollable.
At that time, everyone was blinded by interests, did not carefully analyze the fertility structure of rabbits, and listened to the wind and rain, causing a "breeding tide".
The reproductive structure of rabbits is extremely special, twelve months a year, each month can be produced, each production of at least four.
In other words, a rabbit can give birth to at least 48 rabbits in a year, which is a fertility machine.
Some people who don't understand the truth are still rejoicing, isn't this a business that is not profitable, want to make a lot of money, and feed hares in large quantities.
Unexpected things still happened, that is, this time buried hidden dangers.
The first shot of the hare invasion war, Australia ushered in the hare's invasion.
How powerful is a hare? Can't man defeat the rabbit?
What is the reason behind this? What are Australians doing in the face of this situation?
Hare, crazy aggression
If the British colonists had kept rabbits in specific places, following such a method would not have caused a huge crisis, let alone any ecological imbalance.
If you control rabbits within a certain range, it will be easier to raise.
But hares have certain differences from ordinary rabbits, and "wild" tells the answer.
For a hare to remain wild, it cannot be kept in captivity in a particular location.
So the hare breaks the closed loop of breeding and breaks the rules.
As the saying goes, "three caves for rabbits", rabbits are experts in burrowing, and there is still a lot of space for survival. There is also a wide range of options.
Especially when it comes to hares, the farmers are also very tolerant.
Although they are kept in captivity on the farm, they are not allowed to roam freely on the huge farm against the wishes of the hares.
Where is this captivity, it is clearly free-range.
In fact, in the process of breeding, a new breed of rabbit has appeared, that is, the "mixed blood" of the combination of hare and rabbit.
The breeding of rabbits is very casual, and a random pair of males and females can be combined, which greatly increases the rate of reproduction.
Hare crossed with native rabbits to become a new breed of rabbit.
Living up to expectations, this type of rabbit inherits all the advantages of both, not only the wildness of the hare, but also the wit of the rabbit.
The change of the breeding system also makes the rabbit more adaptable and survivable.
At this time, people are still immersed in joy and think that biodiversity has increased, but in fact it is not.
When did people start suffering from rabbit aggression? It was a few years after raising hares.
Rabbits are not just found on farms, they are found everywhere.
This phenomenon makes people wonder, where did these rabbits come from?
According to the government's in-depth investigation, the "hole digging experts" easily escaped the farm and returned to their natural homes.
Nourished by nature, these rabbits began to breed wildly.
Australia is superior in terms of climatic vegetation, in other words, it is a paradise for rabbits.
These rabbits actually started their aggressive plan, and they frantically ate the vegetation on the surface.
Not only has it left other herbivorous animals without a food source, disturbing the ecological balance, but also changing Australia's landscape.
In addition, Australia, which is dominated by animal husbandry, is no longer as brilliant as before.
Due to the lack of food for cattle and sheep, the output is instantly reduced.
The livestock industry has been hit hard, so it is the Australian economy that ultimately affects it.
This made Australians hate rabbits and resolve to get rid of them and return to calm.
But when people started to govern, they found that it was not as simple as they thought.
According to statistics, smart hares encroach on Australian land at a rate of 100 kilometers every year, and in just a few decades, rabbits have almost dominated the entire Australia.
However, it is still necessary to face the difficulties, whether it is to compare, whether it is a person or a rabbit.
The Australian government began the "man-rabbit war".
What is the specific strategy of the "Rabbit War"? The Australian government has the answer.
They want to solve these rabbits at the root, that is, to kill the rabbits' lives.
It sounds cruel, but the thought that the whole of Australia is under the occupation of rabbits makes the government determined to hunt these odious rabbits.
But it didn't take long for this primitive method to develop other programs.
It turns out that the reproduction rate of rabbits is too fast, and the work of hunting and killing consumes a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and it is far from catching up with the reproduction speed of rabbits, and it still occupies Australia rampantly.
This forced the government to abandon the plan and find another way.
The government at this time focused on rabbits' natural enemies, ferrets and weasels.
I want to use these two animals to realize the plan to annihilate the rabbit.
Soon, the government imported ferrets and weasels from England.
Contrary to expectations, there was a huge discrepancy between ideas and reality, which once put the Australian government in a dilemma.
Ferrets are small and sensitive, and have a strong ability to hunt rabbits.
Indeed, in the beginning, the Australian hare problem, with the help of ferrets, was controlled for a while.
But because the ferret did not adapt to the Australian environment, the plan eventually failed.
Ferrets are animals with extremely high requirements for the living environment, living in coniferous forest areas at altitudes of 800-1600m, and there must be water sources around them.
Not only that, climate change will also drive the migration of ferrets, the living environment is too complex, and Australia can meet too few areas.
Ferrets could not survive the Australian winter, and they ended their lives before fulfilling the long-cherished wish of Australians.
The second battle plan also ended in failure.
Is the Australian government really helpless with the hare? Or is it useless for them to keep the big move?
The continuation of the human-rabbit war
After consultation with scientists in the Australian government, the "myxoma virus" was introduced from abroad.
They feel that with the help of technology, they are in control of this human-rabbit war.
Myxoma virus will only have an effect on rabbits, and will not cause harm to other animals.
The effect was also remarkable, successfully killing 90% of Australia's rabbits.
This made the Australian government and people very happy, thinking that the final victory had been achieved.
But this was the beginning of this war.
Perhaps everyone's focus is on the main line of eliminating rabbits, but they have not considered that rabbits' natural enemies lack food sources.
If they take other animals for their meal, then both animals will be in a desperate situation, and the number will continue to decrease.
Either way, the food chain is inevitably affected.
In addition, ten percent of the hares survived tenaciously.
In the face of the raging virus, the Australian government was surprised that these rabbits left behind had antibodies in their bodies.
Then these ten percent of rabbits will reproduce in cycles as before, and I believe that one day in the future, they will return to the situation that dominated the whole of Australia at that time.
But I didn't expect this day to come so quickly.
In 1990, the Australian rabbit population reached 200 million.
The appearance of these rabbits has changed greatly with the change of time and environment.
The rabbit's weight soared, and it was difficult for an adult to pick it up, so it made international news.
When the news reached China, food lovers asked, why not make these rabbits into delicacy?
Because in China, where the land is vast and the land is abundant, everything is edible.
Among them, he likes to eat rabbit meat, especially in the Sichuan-Chongqing region of the mainland.
According to incomplete statistics, 500 million rabbits are consumed a year in Chinese, and they become delicacy for people to enjoy.
Some Chinese netizens commented: "The spicy and fragrant rabbit head, the tender and juicy rabbit meat, is the Australian people in the blessing does not know the blessing."
In the final analysis, it is still the country's eating habits that are different.
Australians are not interested in rabbit meat, perhaps in their eyes rabbit meat is not eaten at all, or they may not know how to cook.
This makes Australians not even think about eating rabbits.
As mentioned earlier, rabbits have been ravaged by viruses.
Although these rabbits are the descendants of the surviving rabbits of that year, there should be no virus residue.
But still thinking about safety, Australians gave up the idea of eating them.
In addition, coupled with the epidemic at home and abroad, rabbits may also carry the new crown virus, so Australians will not consider eating these rabbits.
Ten thousand steps back, even if you eat these rabbits, but in the sparsely populated Australia, the speed of eating rabbits cannot keep up with the speed of rabbits themselves reproduction.
This is obviously not the key to solving the problem.
Nature is a whole, and the whole body is involved.
Australia's "hare plague" has also given us some inspiration, don't disturb the natural balance at will.
The invasion of wild boars into the United States, the plague of the Australian hare and a series of alien species invasions have greatly affected the ecological environment of the affected countries, and even directly affected the economic development of their own countries.
Therefore, learning the diversity of species and paying attention to the invasion of alien species is the unshirkable responsibility and obligation of each of us.
Finally, I also hope that the Australian government can solve this problem and return the biological chain to a state of natural development.