Rabbit cull resumes in Helsinki

The cull of non-indigenous feral rabbits has resumed in Helsinki.
      The city’s Public Works Department has started to use nets to trap rabbits in parks and wooded areas in the city.
      In early October, rabbit hunters will start using traps, and later crossbows will be used to hunt the rabbits in the city’s allotment gardens.
      In December predators such as ferrets will be sent into areas where rabbits are living to further reduce the population.
     
The feral rabbit population in Helsinki is estimated to be about the same or slightly less than a year ago, according to the city’s building service Stara.
      Rabbits continue to multiply rapidly in areas where hunting them is more difficult, such as the residential areas of Ruskeasuo, Pikku Huopalahti, and Niemenmäki.
      The rabbits have also spread to neighbouring Vantaa and Espoo and other municipalities in the area.
      “It is difficult to estimate the exact number of rabbits, as they live on property of many different owners”, says Stara project chief Antti Rautiainen.
     
City authorities have succeeded in bringing the spread of the feral rabbits under control.
      Hunting has proven successful, especially around Töölönlahti Bay, where once the animals were a frequent sight, often gathered close to the National Opera.
      The rabbits, which are not native to Finland, eat garden plants.
      In addition to the City of Helsinki, the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), Senate Properties, and the Lutheran Parishes of Helsinki have all taken part in rabbit culls.
      One eager amateur culler, the eagle-owl known as Bubi, who lived in the Olympic Stadium and dined on the rabbits, has not been heard of for a while. He rocketed to fame a couple of years ago by defending his home turf in the middle of a football international between Finland and Belgium.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki´s wild rabbits munch holes in Olympic Stadium football nets (9.9.2008)
  Helsinki to begin culling wild rabbit population (30.1.2008)

See also:
  Helsinki´s rabbit control official is no Elmer Fudd (2.2.2009)
  Run, rabbit, run (16.1.2007)