page_title: Scottsdale Reserve
section_title: European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
hierarchical_section_title: Scottsdale Reserve / Environmental threats / European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
caption_attribution_description: rabbit in fields between Portscatho and St Just, Cornwall
context_page_description: Scottsdale Reserve is a 1,328-hectare nature reserve on the Murrumbidgee River in south-central New South Wales, Australia. It is 79 kilometres south of Canberra, and 4 kilometres north of Bredbo. It is owned and managed by Bush Heritage Australia, which purchased it in 2006. The purchase was supportive of projects aiming to connect existing fragmented remnant habitat such as K2C. Since the 1870s up until 2006, the land was used for agriculture – primarily sheep grazing with some minor cropping. A significant component of the Reserve has been cleared of native vegetation.
  The reserve is within lands historically attributed to the Ngunawal people. Aboriginal presence in the area was likely due to the availability of resources such as the Bogong moth and the daisy yam. The Murrumbidgee River would have been a good source of fish including the trout cod – currently listed as endangered under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The river would have provided water for many species of terrestrial fauna the Aborigines are known to have utilised for food including the brushtail possum, eastern grey kangaroo and the swamp wallaby.
context_section_description: European rabbits were introduced to Australia in 1788 as part of the settlement associated with the First Fleet and rapidly established themselves as a serious vertebrate pest. Rabbits create warrens, or a series of burrows in the soil that leads to extensive soil disturbance in the near vicinity. Weeds tend to flourish in the disturbed soils associated with warren diggings at the expense of native vegetation. Rabbits will graze extensively, removing native vegetation and degrading the landscape. They have a significant impact on shrub recruitment unless suitable guards are in place which can be an expensive means of protecting new growth.
  Scottsdale maintains an active program to help reduce the threat of rabbits. Since volunteers at Scottsdale have been inspecting and baiting warrens every 3 months, active rabbit sites have reduced from nearly 60% of 320 identified warrens to around 20%.
caption: Young wild rabbit
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