With snow on the ground I thought it would be a good time to take my little beagle pups out and try to find a rabbit for them. Hunted all afternoon and only found one rabbit for them to trail. I've been wondering if anybody else out there has noticed the rabbit and quail population being down or if it is just in my neighborhood. When I was growing up it seemed like we would have at least one or two rabbit dinners per month through the winter. But the last couple of years it has been some very hard hunting. I didn't notice it today but the last time it snowed here I found more domestic cat prints in the snow than I did rabbits. Any other hunters having this problem?

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 04, 2002

Answers

r.h, sure have noticed this! I am no where near you(I'm in Oregon) but rabbits are hard to find here too. Pheasants, Quail and many ground nesting birds are disappearing fast! Fish & Wildlife have been studying this and so far it appears to be a combination of predation by cats and disease spread by fleas. Cats are a BIG problem to wildlife and not just feral cats (studies of Stomach contents).The house pets people let run loose are just hell on wildlife. Don't know the answer. I know many people keep barn cats etc. for keeping down the mice and rats as we have killed off the natural predators who would naturally eat them. And of course there is nothing wrong with this. I don't believe there is an answer. Nature tells us (if we listen) adapt or die, and I think many of our previouly seen species will die out. Many wild species are crossing with "released" domestics. There is an RV park on the coast that is amazing for the rabbits. Released domestics(30 years ago) have crossed with the Coast Brush Rabbit there and the resulting offspring are just remarkable! No opinion here on whether this is good or bad, it just is. The world is shrinking and changing, and we are making a huge impact on our wild species. I know you miss your rabbit dinners, I know what you mean! LOL LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), March 04, 2002.

The rabbit population in our area is about at 0 thanks to the Dept of Natural Resources (DNR). They introduced coyotes, who knows why, some years ago and the population has gone down ever since then.

Why do people in the DNR, and other government entities think they always know what is best for everybody?

Just my $.02.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), March 04, 2002.

Cats are also a factor in the demise of the Texas Horned Toad.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), March 04, 2002.

They are plentyful out at the 9 acres we just sold. Everyone always wanted to hunt there but I would not let them. We were the only ones with woods still surounding our pond. We had a 12 point buck deer and his little hairum and alot of wild turkey to. We put out a 50 lbs of cracked corn every 2 weeks and a deer lick and a sale lick about every 4 months. The animals loved that place. But it now belongs to somone else. I hope they enjoy the animals as much as we did.

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), March 04, 2002.

We have been seeing less and less of the rabbits and quail.My theory is the fire ants.It seems to me as the fire ants increase,I've been seeing alot less of the animals that make their nests either on or under the ground.

-- Johna (marcnjohna@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

we have less and less rabbits and quail too. I dont ever remember see quail here. There are lots of coyotes here. due to the stupid airport expanding.... thanks " AA, United, and Delta"....

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

Here in southern MN the rabbit & othere such population goes in cycles, maybe 20 years or so. Fox (and now cyote, dern it) grow in population, eat up all the rabbits, then die off/ move on. Rabbits make a comeback until a person is sick of seeing them, then the fox population also comes back. Seems right now I see a lot of rabbits again. Lots of cottontails in the grove, and just saw a jack yesterday in the field.

Three very large holes in the field road also, so some preadators are out there!

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

the dnr did not have to stock coyotes they do a good job of it them selves. as a hunter i can tell you that the pet house cats gone wild and those kittys who just hunt for fun have done the damage. i use dogs to tree game and the dogs tree cats in the woods every time i hunt. small ground animals have no chance with cats in the woods. when we moved into the country we went the barn cat route and all they did was kill all the rabbits and chipmunks and quail, i know this because we found them on the door step every day. so i got rid of the cats. a woman up the road feeds 20 cats on her porch and the cats have kittens like crazy, half of them starve the other half survive and hunt then end up as tree game for me.

-- paul coleman (wormfarmerone@yahoo.com), March 05, 2002.

First off, for Bob in WI, DNR did NOT introduce coyotes into Wisconsin. They got here on their own just as the wolves did in the northern part of the state. Although coyotes have sometimes gotten a bum rap and accused of knocking down the rabbit population, I know of some areas of this state where the rabbits have made a comeback where the coyotes have moved into. Why? It's because the coyotes are feeding on feral cats! We could use more of the yodel dogs here in Dane County where there are an estimated 80,000 feral cats. It's not just the rabbits and songbirds that suffer but also the raptors such as hawks and owls. If a cat is a good hunter and just takes 2 field mice per day, that's 2 less for the natural predators, the raptors. For r.h. in OK, you are hunting the wrong critter. Follow those cat tracks instead and get rid of that problem. Then you'll see the rabbit population return in a few years. How you handle it is up to you. If no collar and tags, it's not a domestic cat!

-- Martin Longseth (paquebot@merr.comm), March 05, 2002.

Last year, the rabbits did a great job of ruining my raspberry patch! There seemed to be plenty of them around. We put chicken wire around the patch and this year, I haven't seen many tracks. We also have 12 outside cats that we feed well. I don't worry about the rabbit,chipmunk, mouse, etc. population. Given the balance of nature, it all evens out.

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

Just the opposite here in my part of the woods. Rabbits are everywhere! Must be the apex year for rabbit production. I have noticed lots of domestic cats around lately. Look at it this way, all those domestic cats roaming around make good target practice and they may indeed keep the coyote population under control.

-- Okie-Dokie (tjcamp6338@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

The rabbit population out our way is also pretty low. If you examined the vegitation and cover around here it should be a rabbit factory. When we first moved out here there were a few and then the population dropped even lower. Feral cats and probably a good number of my neighbors cats are responsible. Their tracks are everywhere. There is also an area out back that is textbook perfect cover for ruffed grouse (a passion of mine), I haven't kicked out a bird in 6 or 7 years there. The coyotes out back have put the local fox population down quite a bit too. I hope they do make a steady diet of cat because besides rabbit the song bird population is in the crapper too. We've had them take some of our free range chickens and the only reason we probably haven't lost more is because of our one psycho rooster who thinks he's a cross between an airdale and a honey badger.If the beast weighed 40 lbs. we'd all be meat. We shoot a lot of woodchucks around here, maybe we should all put the kittys on the list too. OK cat lovers, rip me a new one.

-- JJ Grandits (JJGBDF@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

Rabbit populations have cycles. They are in sync with the preditors, when there are a lot of preditors, rabbits are down. When the prediotors loose numbers, the rabbits go up. Mother Nature's way. Four years ago we had plenty. This year, not so many. I don't hunt em, but we let rabbit hunters on the farm a couple of weekends a year. They did ok this year until one of the dogs stepped on a locuts thorn. End of hunt for him. I shoot one every now and then that takes a liking to the flower beds. This is under strict orders from the supervisor. She says, off with their heads if they eat my flowers.

-- Rickstir (rickstir@budweiser.com), March 05, 2002.

We've got bunnies. The kids and I went through the woods and along the creek to see what tracks we could find in the snow Sunday. We found rabbit trails too numerous to count. Either we have a ton of rabbits or a couple of REALLY BUSY ones! We also found what I believe to be bobcat tracks. Hubby saw a mother and two babies a couple of months ago crossing the creek.

Daughter found tiny tracks with long tail mark behind. "Look, Mom" she says "a mouse." After a little bit, the tracks end abruptly and there are marks of wings brushing the snow. She was so excited. "It tells the whole story right here in the snow!"

Coyotes are more of a problem here than cats. My kitties don't last long if they don't stay pretty close to the barn. Neither do my chickens.

About three years ago, we couldn't find a squirrel any where on our place. Now I see them pretty often.

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), March 05, 2002.

what Rickster said isn't stricly true. since most predators are opportunists when one prey becomes scarce they change to something else until that gets scarce and so on. the only predator in America that is tied closely to prey cycles is the lynx and the snowshoe hare. rabbits and other prolific prey species should be highly visible in spring and summer and less so in fall and all but gone in late winter. unrestrained and feral cats and dogs are a major factor in the decline of small game. however the severe depression of the fur market and the consequent reduction in hunting and trapping means more bobcat, fox, coon, skunk and weasels living long enough to become extremely successful hunters. while these may be the biggest and most widespread other more localized factors like fire ants or epidemic can be big contributors to the problem.

-- Pops (pops762@hotmail.com), March 06, 2002.

Domestic cats let out at night killing part time account for 90% of the small game killed by predation for every bobcat fox or coyote there are 1000 domestic cats even if each makes only one kill a week it is still an enormous impact. jkg

-- jason godsey (jasonkgodsey@hotmail.com), March 06, 2002.