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A supposed “rabbit island” in Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ThAvnJVSUo
Having lots of rabbits is a good thing, but THIS many?
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I do hope they at least do a spay/neuter program — that many rabbits with each female being able to have a litter every month will end up turning rabbit heaven to rabbit hell in a very short time. As cute as it is, the future looks dim for these bunnies without some control.
Sorry to be a party pooper — I’m hanging on the forum today watching for spammers after last nights spamfest — so I might have traveled too far to the dark side today.
Helloworld!!
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I heard of this rabbit island a while back. It’s called “Okunoshima”. The island was used to make chemical weapons during the 1920s. And bunnies were used as test subjects.
Not sure how factual, but I read on one of my FB rabbit sites that the bunnies only live to be about 3 years because of the chemicals in the area and that food is scarce. There are not natural predators on the island and dogs or cats are not allowed.
Not sure which vid you posted since it was removed, but I’m assuming it’s the one with the girl being chased by the bunnies for a treat. If you look around, there is no grass visible. I imagine they are hungry.
So yes, while it is cute, it’s a very sad situation.
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Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 02/20/2014 03:19 PM
I heard of this rabbit island a while back. It’s called “Okunoshima”. The island was used to make chemical weapons during the 1920s. And bunnies were used as test subjects. Not sure how factual, but I read on one of my FB rabbit sites that the bunnies only live to be about 3 years because of the chemicals in the area and that food is scarce. There are not natural predators on the island and dogs or cats are not allowed.
Not sure which vid you posted since it was removed, but I’m assuming it’s the one with the girl being chased by the bunnies for a treat. If you look around, there is no grass visible. I imagine they are hungry.
The video is from the beach area of the island. There are other pictures such as http://cdn.onegreenplanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10//2014/02/nishioka-Flickr.jpg which show there is a fair amount of grass on the island. It’s known for its “natural beauty”. Food is scarce in winter though, due to the weather.
There are two competing theories on where the rabbits originated from. First theory, the test animals from the chemical weapons plants. But, sources say those animals were put down when Americans took over the plant, rather than released when it was abandoned. Given it’s an old military matter, there is no solid evidence either way. Second theory is that a group of school children released eight rabbits they had raised on the island. There are currently over 280 rabbits on “rabbit island”.
It is a bad situation regardless given they are not native animals. It’s never good when such a large population of a foreign species is introduced. It’s cute, but, they should have never been released into the wild to begin with. Much like the feral parrot population in California. Or the pythons in Florida. Though, as far as I can tell, the rabbits and parrots do far less damage to their ecosystem than the pythons are doing. But, there are large populations of “exotic pets” in various pockets of the world. While it looks cool, it’s the result of people being irresponsible.
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