A dawn ramble for rabbits

Simon Garnham discovers that reports of the humble bunny disappearing may have been greatly exaggerated

- Simon Garnham

Mark Twain is said to have declared that “reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”, when told that his obituary had appeared in the papers while he was still alive. I recalled this famous quote recently following a first-rate dawn adventure chasing the supposedly doomed rabbit.

At the height of summer there is nothing more glorious than a hedgerow ramble in the first light of dawn. So we set out in the darkness, the sun-bleached and weary grass shining after an overnight storm, the gloom lifting slowly in an overcast sky.

A roebuck hidden deep inside the woods barked out his rasping call in response to the high-pitched piping of the female. But we were armed with shotguns and I envisaged that pigeon, corvids and squirrels would be keeping us busy. I hadn’t reckoned on the healthy numbers of rabbits that we would encounter as we crept along the hedgerows.

On 7 October 1898 at Blenheim Palace it is recorded that a staggering 6,943 rabbits were shot by five Guns in the course of seven drives. As Tim Maddams chronicles in his recent fascinating article (What the Romans Did for Us, 10 June 2020) these sorts of numbers are now unimaginable. Myxomatosis, since 1953, and, in more recent years, Viral Haemorrhagic Disease (VHD) have taken a toll on the humble bunny.