There are a number of reasons why they're doing it. It is mainly in the agricultural areas of the state that we are seeing this comeback. It is partly due to the fact that people are doing lots of fox control. It is also partly because they have not been doing conventional rabbit control, as they were hoping calicivirus would be the answer to all their problems. We certainly can't.
Farmers have to do other things as well.
They used to rip up warrens with a tractor and fumigate them later. They also poisoned rabbits and got rid of any logs and rubbish around the farm. That is the sort of thing they have to do now, to get a long term control of rabbits. Ron Sinclair, Scientist Nobody expects to win the war, and get rid of every feral rabbit, but the more their numbers are controlled, the better off the land will be. It started as a house plant, brought from southern Africa more than a century ago.