Rabbit baiting underway at Lake Hindmarsh

Friday 15 February, 2013

A program of rabbit baiting is underway again at Lake Hindmarsh in an effort to significantly reduce the rabbit population in this area. The program will also include destroying rabbit warrens.

Parks Victoria Team Leader Stuart Lardner encouraged visitors to avoid these sites while the baiting continues.

“The areas being baited are well identified by signs and we ask visitors to keep away from these places until we have finished,” he said.

“We are using Pindone to bait the rabbits as it has a lower risk of causing secondary poisoning of other animals and there is a known antidote available,” said Mr Lardner.

The baiting work is funded by the Victorian Government’s Good Neighbour Program and is part of an integrated approach to control rabbits.

Mr Lardner said the project had already shown promising results with the rabbit population being reduced significantly.

“It is encouraging to see that our continued efforts to control these pests on the reserve are reducing rabbit numbers. However, we need to do more work to ensure the population is brought to an acceptable level.

“Research has shown that rabbit numbers must be below one rabbit per spotlight kilometre before natural regeneration will occur,” he said.