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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: March 2007

When the cat is away...

 

SYDNEY--Seven years after exterminators in June 2000 killed the last feral cats on Macquarie Island, an Australian possession within the Antarctic Circle, the island's feral rabbit population has soared from about 10,000 when the cat-killing began in the mid-1980s to an estimated 100,000. "Rabbits are destroying Macquarie Island's fragile vegetation, causing erosion and exposure, which threatens its seabirds," University of Tasmania geographer Jenny Scott warned in a report commissioned by Birds Australia.

The Australian federal government and state government of Tasmania are now disputing over which is to pay the $15 million (Australian) estimated cost of killing all the rabbits. "The last supply boat of this season leaves Hobart in early April, so the two sides need to come to a cost-sharing arrangement and get their people and equipment on that boat," World Wildlife Fund representative Julie Kirkwood told Nick Squires of the South China Morning Post.

The plan to kill the rabbits is also supported by the Australian Green Party.

Both cats and rabbits were apparently left on Macquarie Island by whalers circa 1820. About 2,500 cats kept the rabbit population in check, but were blamed for allegedly killing as many as 60,000 sea birds per year.