Rabbits have found conditions in Australia and drier areas of New Zealand to be ideal. These methods have impacted on the rabbit population. However, the rabbit's breeding vigour and adaptability have made effective control, particularly in some remote and less productive areas, impossible.
Experience clearly shows that no one control method can solve Australia's rabbit problem.
A combination of biological control and conventional methods is needed. After release of the myxoma virus, insufficient attention was given to the need for conventional rabbit control methods to cull those rabbits which survived myxomatosis. The virus evolved into less virulent forms that allowed both the rabbit and virus to survive. At the same time, rabbits developed greater resistance to the disease. These factors allowed rabbit numbers to increase again to plague proportions in several areas, and the opportunity to keep rabbit numbers low was lost.