[BAKEWELL11]

hi All,
This isn't a particularly serious question.... just something I have always wondered about.
I had giant rabbits for some years and adored them, they lived free range in rabbit proofed garden. I now rent land overrun with wild rabbits and warrens and dangerous horse trapping holes!

If my giant vaccinated bunnies had escaped into the wild.... would they have integrated and bred with the locals? and if so, would I have ended up with even more massive warren holes??   I do understand the dangers of introducing non indigenous species into the wild etc... just imagining new strains of giant rabbits appearing over time as giant rabbit breeds become more popular as pets?

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Hi,

  I am going to indulge you with an atempt at a serious answer to a not particularly serios question

I recon that if you released your domestic bunnies the following would probably happen,

They would get eaten and preyed on as they would not be street wise enough to take care of themselves.

The ones that survived that would be chased away by the colony that they tried to infiltrate.

Any that managed to infiltrate would not be mated with (I'm asuming they are females) if the were defective colours (white \ patchy - some stalions will not mate with mares of certain colous)

and finally any that were able to overcome all these challenges would be too big to fit down the burrow!


Buffy

[BAKEWELL11]

 
Thank you!!! I don't have bunnies any more, and wouldn't have let em go if I did, just something I always wondered about, and whenever I see a black wild bunny I wonder if it is an escapee. I didn't know wild rabbits were racist!!  Guess that explains why we don't have multi coloured warrens all over the place tho.
The holes in my field are massive!!! My retreiver gets down there and disappears! There are normal size holes too of course. Got badger man coming tonight to leave a camera on and check for badgers before we take action against the bunny population.  
We have foxes and buzzards... and dreaded myxie... don't understand how they are taking over in such a big way, literally they are eating more grass than my horses get, thank goodness the giants can't interbreed!!!!
Thx again for reply!!

[Cobra]

OK heres a real scenario and food for thought.

Local to me was a family that had rabbits, they lived in a farm house next to a motorway embankment: When they moved away a varying amount of said rabbits, did make there escape. This was at least twenty years ago; on the verges and embankments of the motorway bridge now live lots and lots of rabbits in various furry coats from wild brown to black and white and a mix of both and doing well

So I'm afraid I would say: Yeah they will do just fine, just like chickens they need no intervention from humans to survive, yes numbers will suffer due to hunting animals and even diseases they arnt familiar with but they would manage 

[fizzgigg]

im with cobra and kno of a few places where domesticated rabbits brred freely with wild 1s also a few years back 1 of my does escaped for about a week and came back pregnant the babies all got raised for the pot but it can and does happen as for giant rabbits i think they would struggle to escape a fox or other predator but they could breed it could happen 

[Cobra]

Ware Rabbit    

[BAKEWELL11]

wonder if butchers would like huge "wild" rabbit?  I live on an Island... we could think about developing a unique species like the galapagos islands??
Hmmm actually... I have enough problems with normal size rabbits... maybe not such a great idea.

[shetlandpaul]

same up here lots of diffrent coloure bunnies. but limited to small areas.

[chriso]

I've just been shooting last night and quite a few looked to be domestic/cross breeds doing very well in the wild.