Public Enemies: 150 years this month since rabbits hit Australia

[depakid]

THOMAS AUSTIN, ACTOR: Mr Austin, sir, some good news. Your cargo has arrived safely. That's delightful. It's about time. We've been waiting months for that consignment. My brother has sent them over for me. It's good news for Australia.

TRUDI TOYNE, NATIONAL TRUST: Thomas had worked really quite hard and was very committed to trying to bring rabbits as well as birds and other animals to Australia, and he communicated with his family in England and asked them to gather together 12 pairs of rabbits to send out to him.

BRIAN COMAN, SCIENTIST AND AUTHOR: Rabbits actually came out with the First Fleet, but they weren't wild rabbits they were domestic type rabbits, but Thomas Austin is credited with the first successful and publicly known importation of rabbits, wild rabbits from England.

TIM LEE, REPORTER: Englishman Thomas Austin, wealthy pastoralist and merchant, was a leading light in the acclimatisation society, which yearned for the plants and animals of the old country, especially animals you could hunt. In October 1859, his precious cargo arrived at Barwon Park.

TRUDI TOYNE: So he had built enclosures, he had also built a gamekeeper's hut, he had employed a gamekeeper, he had planted out paddocks with lettuces so he could feed the rabbits when they arrived. It's even said that there were some warrens that were dug to make it a bit easier for the rabbits.

ROB WUTATSCH, HISTORIAN: I guess he was doing what seemed like a good idea at the time. He was doing what he thought was right. Up until then - I mean, rabbits had been here since 1788, they've never really taken off, so his worries were probably, "Are these rabbits going to survive?", not, "Are they going to multiple, and go forth and multiply."

TIM LEE: Christmas Day 1859, these seemingly innocuous shy, largely nocturnal vegetarians, hopped out of their hutches to run the gauntlet of the guns.

DAVE STEEL, MUSICIAN: Five years later they trapped, shot, caught 10,000 rabbits....

More: http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2008/s2723455.htm

[krispos42]

1. Jeez, they couldn't release a few cats into the wild?

Feral cats breed quickly as well.

[depakid]

2. Some fine cats are banned:

http://www.savannahcats.com/

Although feral cats are said to grow that big- and bigger on their own after multiple generations.

Maybe that explains the Hound o' the Baskervilles Blue Mountains panther....

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/09/19/panther_wideweb__470x296,0.jpg
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/26/1109180165887.html

[SwissTony]

3. Well...they did.

Did not go well. Tended to eat the smaller wildlife.

OTOH, people have caused more damage than cats...but we call it progress.

[happyslug]

4. That is a bad picture.... could be a dog for all I know

Now it gives the impression of being a big cat, i.e. a leopard but I have my doubts. Leopards are one of the most successful cars, spreading all over the Asia and Africa, how did it get to New South Wales? Leopards are hard to domestic and are known man-killers (much more then their cousins the Lions and Tigers and other members of the sub-family Pantherinae). Why would anyone bring in more then one at a time (and one at a time would be to be hunted)? Jaguar is also mentioned as a possibility, but as "least likely" but like the Leopard the Jaguar is a near relative of the Lion and Tiger and like all members of that family hunts by instinct more then experience.

On the other hand, the other major Cat sub-Family (Felinae), the Cheetahs and Cougars, learn to hunt from their Mothers and can be TRAINED. The Cheetah and Cougar branch of the Cat Family are also the most "Dog Like" of the Cats. Reports from England of a large cat roaming the rural areas of England tend to support a Cougar more then any other cat for the simple reason a Cougar is trainable (and this adaptable to almost any area) and are known NOT to be man-killers (Some Cougar attacks have occurred but they are rare compared to attacks by Lions, Tigers, Leopards and their cousins). The Cougar is NOT called the "Great American Ghost" for nothing, for once it has a territory it will stay away from humans (Thus the reports of Cougars are always about young males NOT older cats nor Females whose territories overlap males but tend to be much smaller). People have made pets of cougars (and their Cousins the Cheetah have been used as hunting pets since the times of the Ancient Egyptians, again given their ability to learn and thus be trained). The reports that Americans entered the area in the 1850s provides a base for the possibility that more then one cougar went over, but with no reports of such importation (Which may have been covered up by the people bringing the cougars) a weak argument (But given the increase use of Steam after the 1860s, more and more possible by the 1890s when the last Australian Gold Rush took place)

Now, the picture shows a body that is to tall and to skinny to be a Cougar (Cougars tend to have shorter legs and more muscle, this gives the Cougar its main advantage over other cats, Cougars have the longest leap of any cat). On the other hand the picture is so bad it could be a Leopard or a Dog (as while as a Cougar). By the 1890s it was fully possible to transport any large Cat any distance given the larger ships and the use of Steam as the main propulsion source, so I can NOT rule out Leopards (And the picture, as poor as it is, looks to me more like a Leopard then a Cougar).

Just a comment on what this Cat may be. If it is a Cougar, Leopard Scant will NOT have any affect except to give the Cougar greater incentive to hide. It could be a Tasmanian Wolf, which is suppose to be extinct since 1925. The picture is bad and any of these animals could fit the picture.

More on Large cats in England:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_Exmoor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_big_cats
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0603_040603_bigcats.html

More on the Cougar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar

More on the Leopard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard

It could be a Tasmanian Wolf, which is suppose to be extinct since 1925:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine
http://thewebsiteofeverything.com/animals/mammals/Dasyuromorphia/Thylacinidae/Thylacinus/Thylacinus-cynocephalus.html

[AtheistCrusader]

5. The same thing happened in Hawaii.

Hey, lets bring in Mongoose, to take care of the rat problem in the cane fields.

Now the mongoose are everywhere, and they don't do squat to the rats, because the rats are nocturnal, and the mongoose aren't.

DOH.

[NNadir]

6. The actual solution involved the importation of myxamatosis.

Regrettably, the rabbits in Australia have evolved resistance to the disease.

Phillip Larkin wrote a famous poem about the disease:

Myxomatosis

Philip Larkin

Caught in the center of a soundless field
While hot inexplicable hours go by
What trap is this? Where were its teeth concealed?
You seem to ask.

I make a sharp reply,
Then clean my stick. I'm glad I can't explain
Just in what jaws you were to suppurate:
You may have thought things would come right again
If you could only keep quite still and wait.