12. Before Anybody Knew It, the ‘Land Down Under’ Drowned Under a Tide of Rabbits
Rabbits are not native to Australia, and did not face as wide and lethal a variety of predators to keep their population in check Down Under as was the case in their native habitats. So from cute and cuddly and sometimes delicious animals, they morphed in Australia into feral and invasive pests that devastated their new home. As early as the 1820s, settlers began to complain that rabbits had overrun the place. By the 1860s, between the disappearance of many natural predators, mild seasons that allowed for year-round breeding, and natural selection that produced a hardier breed of wild rabbits, their population exploded.
By 1920, Australia had an estimated 10 billion feral rabbits. They competed with livestock for pasture, ate crops, and stripped the soil of vegetation. The latter is particularly problematic, as Australia has the most vulnerable soil and the one most susceptible to erosion of all the continents, except for Antarctica. For over a century, Australians have struggled to control their rabbit population. They shot, poisoned, and infected them with epidemic diseases, but to no avail. The most conspicuous measure was fencing. That ranged from fences around individual farms and pastures, to massive fences that stretch for hundreds of miles, such as Western Australia’s Rabbit-Proof Fence. The latter failed to live up to its name: rabbits jumped over and burrowed beneath it.
