What is up with our rabbit population?????

[T.R.]

Here in SE Pennsylvania, foxes get the blame.  These days hardly any guys trap anymore.  Fox and coyote populations are on the rise.

TR

[SM Bob]

I know this is an old thread, but I have to agree the rabbit population in the area that I hunt is way down! I used to see all kinds of rabbit roadkill in the area. Not any more. This season I bagged a grand total of 1 Jackrabbit.   Several years back I would get a limit of cottontails and and a bunch of jackrabbits in a couple of hours. Sadly that's not happening now. Maybe it's lack of rainfall. I'm hoping this next season will be better.
 
Robert
 

[Ranch13]

They run in cycles. As recently as 3 years ago, the cottontails were horrendously thick, the coyote, fox and bobcat population was exploding as well. The rabbit numbers started to drop , the coyotes turned to adding fox to the diet, then they got the mange, and about died out. Bobcats still doing fine, not many cottontails around , but the Jackrabbits, both whitetails and blacks are starting to rebound.

[beerbelly]

The fish and game people say it is not the cause, but before we had coyotes in Alabama we had plenty of quail and rabbits. We now have coyotes and quail are almost non-extent and rabbits are few and far in between.

[lil_hunter12]

Here in ky there doesn't seem to be as many rabbits except around my yard. But I don't see many coyote either due to I kill every coyote I see. I will see one coyote in about a 6 month period. When I moved here I killed 3 a week

[gcrank1]

I was just talking 'yotes with a friend 'up nort' (Bayfield Cty, WI, near Lake Superior) and told him how we have no rabbits, grouse or quail and we do have 'yote howls from a couple different directions and see tracks occasionally. It has been about the same for him. He recently got an elec. unit with the various calls, set it to a young distress call (?) and had answer-ups ALL AROUND HIM; said it was creepy.......had no idea there were so many AND so close!
Now Im no 'wildlife biologist, but Ive spent my life mostly in the country and bushwackin' just to see, even if not hunting. Seems if there are that many dogs there cant be small game, but what do I know compared to the DNR?

[PowPow]

The fish and game people say it is not the cause, but before we had coyotes in Alabama we had plenty of quail and rabbits. We now have coyotes and quail are almost non-extent and rabbits are few and far in between.

I've been told the quail problem is a result of fire ants that moved in from Texas over the last few decades.
They get on the eggs and babies.

[beerbelly]

Could be , but the fire aints came from Texas and they have plenty of quail. I don't know and doubt the fish and game people do either, but I sure do miss them Bob Whites!

[mechanic]

I shot a couple of doe rabbits Sat. before last, the first I've "walked up" in a long time.  This was on land that once adjoined my Grandpa's farm years ago, but is not Corp. of Eng. land.  Lots of coyote there, less the ones I have managed to shoot which didn't hardly dent them.  The coyotes have moved to fawns and even grown deer in some cases.
 
I'm thinking around here the lack of farming makes a difference.  When I was a boy, Grandpa planted almost 40 acres of the farm, and we have 5 - 7 covey of quail, and rabbits so thick you would almost step on them.
 
We also didn't have many hawks, and no coyotes then.  Coyotes I didn't see untill about 20 or so years ago here.  Hawks got shot on general principle then.
 
Anyway, those rabbits will be in a stew Sat. for my lunch or dinner.
 
Ben

[jpshaw]

Wyo. Coyote Hunter,  I think your name speaks volumes here.  A dramatic increase in coyotes locally, and less and less farming.Ben

Ditto on mechanic, Coyote population up = rabbit population down.

[twoshooter]

Bush Hogs.

People used to have fence rows all full of briars and shrubs, huge black berry thickets etc. Since the bush hog and tractors available all over every hobby farmer wants his acerage to look like central park, all neatly groomed, and short, so in the spring grass will have a quicker start. Undisturbed brush and thickets are almost extinct, ergo- no habitat. Same thing here as when Fescue was introduced as the dominant pasture grass- no more winter wheat, rye, no clover or millet, no more quail.

[FPH]

Bush Hogs.

People used to have fence rows all full of briars and shrubs, huge black berry thickets etc. Since the bush hog and tractors available all over every hobby farmer wants his acerage to look like central park, all neatly groomed, and short, so in the spring grass will have a quicker start. Undisturbed brush and thickets are almost extinct, ergo- no habitat. Same thing here as when Fescue was introduced as the dominant pasture grass- no more winter wheat, rye, no clover or millet, no more quail.

I have to agree.  I had 5 acres with a good bit of habitat for rabbits near San Antonio......we had cotton tails everywhere.

[mcwoodduck]

Sad..People amaze me how they feel if a problem leaves their area, it is no longer a problem...ask him to save some gas and you take them for that final ride...

We had a problem with cats in Norfolk, VA.  College kids in the droms buy Kittens and are told they or the cats have to go.  So they take the cats to the family neighborhoods near campus and let them go, thinking that a family will take them in.  Since they are kittens they are not fixed and well they multiply.  One night I heard my roomate rack the slide on his shot gun and charge out the front door.  I grabbed a pistol and followed him to almost run over him as he was laying down point the gun under the house tryingto kill the two or more cats trying to reproduce.  I talked him out of shooting and said we would take care of the cats the next day. 
I took a piece of 3/4 inch plywood squares about 2 foot square and screwed them together at right angles.  Put them in the back yard with a can of tuna with church key holes in it and a nail through the center to hold it down.  The cats came and screamed as the tuna was no longer able to be eaten and we shot them with my 10/22 and threw them in the trash can.  The rule was nothing with a collar.  We ent through a box of ammo. 

[gcrank1]

We have had a LONG, SLOW spring coming in here in SC WI, but the buds have opened in the last few days on many trees and the grass has really greened up. Ive seen a rabbit a day, in different places so likely different rabbits, for the has 4 days and a small Celulose Charles munchin' new green shoots yesterday.
There is hope yet!