Nine thousand rabbits culled on tiny Hebridean island and sold to France

One of UK's biggest rabbit culls carried out on Canna after population explosion following previous cull of rats

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent

5:07PM GMT 26 Nov 2014

Nine thousand rabbits have been culled on a small Hebridean island, and sold to restaurants in France, in one of the biggest operations of its kind in the UK.

The large-scale cull was ordered on Canna, which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, after a previous cull of rats allowed rabbit numbers to spiral out of control.

A team of six men spent a "manic" three months on the island killing the rabbits using methods including traps, dogs, ferrets, shotguns and rifles. The carcasses were then sold in France for £1 each.

Despite the operation, an estimated 7,000 rabbits still remain and one man is carrying on the cull on the tiny island, which is the westernmost of the Small Isles and has around 11 residents.

Edward Cook, of Evergreen Rabbit Control in Hampshire, won the contract to carry out the operation and said it was “one of the biggest rabbit culls in UK history".

He added: "They had done quite a bit of damage. It's made a massive difference. The island looks green again."

Read on ...

Britain to cull thousands of rabbits on tiny Scottish island

London (AFP) - The windswept Scottish island of Canna is home to just 12 people -- and 16,000 rabbits. But thousands of the bunnies are set to be culled after their frantic burrowing caused a landslide, officials said Monday.

The National Trust of Scotland, a conservation charity, said the rabbit population had to be brought back to a "sustainable" level as their digging is damaging buildings on the tiny, remote island off the west coast.

"Steps have to be taken to bring the population back under control," a National Trust spokeswoman told AFP.

A landslide on Canna last week is being partly blamed on underground rabbit warrens which weakened the soil structure, she said.

"That caused the only road on the island to be impassable for several days," she added.

Canna resident Winnie MacKinnon told The Times newspaper that the rabbits had even uncovered skeletons in the island's cemetery.

"The rabbits are digging up the graveyard and they're dragging out the bones," MacKinnon said.

She added: "A lot of rabbit pie is being eaten but you cannot keep up with them."

The National Trust is currently looking for a contractor to carry out a cull on the seven-kilometre (four-mile) long island, which is part of Scotland's ruggedly beautiful Inner Hebrides archipelago.

The "most likely" solution is that the rabbits will be shot, the charity's spokeswoman said. She declined to specify how many rabbits would be culled, but confirmed it would be in the thousands.

It is only a few years since Canna was overrun with rats. In 2006 the National Trust launched a two-year operation to eradicate the island's 5,000 rats, which had been threatening its seabird colony by gorging on unhatched eggs.

http://news.yahoo.com/britain-cull-thousands-rabbits-tiny-scottish-island-134041151.html