Conservationists are hopping with joy at the discovery of a population of the Cape’s critically endangered riverine rabbit well outside its previously known range.
There have been several sightings of the mammal on the privately-owned Bijstein nature reserve in the Touwsrivier district about 150 km north-east of Cape Town.
Previously the rabbit, whose rapidly declining numbers are estimated at a mere five to six hundred and which occurs nowhere but South Africa, had been found only in the central Karoo, in the area around Calvinia, Fraserburg and Victoria West.
According to Anita Wheeler of Cape Nature Conservation, who is one of the co-ordinators of the Riverine Rabbit Project, the last sighting of a riverine rabbit south of the N1 highway was made in the Beaufort West area some 20 yers ago.
She said the initial sightings at Bijstein were about six months ago, and she did not believe at first that they were for real. Then last month she visited the reserve to check for herself.
”The one night we went out on a night drive, and found four rabbits, which is unbelievable. We were really exhilarated,” she said.
She said genetic material would be collected from several rabbits to determine whether the Touwsrivier animals were a population native to that area, or had been deliberately transplanted from another area.
She was aware of one bid 20 years ago to translocate rabbits to the Ceres Karoo area, ”but they never really survived”.
The genetic testing was done on tiny and painless clippings of cartilage from the ears of netted rabbits, material from dead animals, or hair from their burrows. The tests would be carried out at the University of Stellenbosch.
The rabbit occurs only in shrublands on alluvial soils along seasonal rivers, and according to Cape Nature Conservation, without formal protection of its natural habitat is in danger of extinction.
A major cause of the dwindling numbers has been degradation of habitat through overstocking of sheep, bush encroachment, cultivation, erosion and alien invaders.
Predators, floods, climate change and disease, lack of collaboration for landowners and inappropriate land use have also contributed.
The riverine rabbit working group, established under the auspices of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, has been conducting regular censuses of the rabbit population.
A captive breeding programme has been attempted but without success. – Sapa