Noticed more rabbits lately? Pesky creatures keep finding new digs

Authorities and experts say favourable conditions in recent years, including wet weather, have created a good breeding environment for the city's rabbit population, which has been growing and spreading to new areas.

"Rabbit populations have increased considerably in some nature reserves and urban areas across Canberra," a spokesperson for the ACT government said.

Brian Cooke, an adjunct associate professor with the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra, has seen this first hand.

He lives in Weston Creek and has noticed rabbit numbers increasing in the area.

"I see that there's some old rabbit warrens that haven't been used for years, [they] have been opened up this year, on Mount Taylor, for example," he said.

"I'm seeing new warrens created nearby so I know that the rabbits are spreading."

Dr Cooke said recent wet weather has also pushed their breeding season well into the summer.

"They need green grass for their reproduction, they've bred almost continuously into the summer this year," he said.

"There's a lot more rabbits about and they're probably spreading out a little bit because as their population density grows, some of the younger rabbits move off into new territories."

The ACT is far from the only jurisdiction that has been plagued by the declared pest since it was brought to Australian shores hundreds of years ago.

In the past, biocontrol programs, including the myxoma virus and the calicivirus, have been used across the nation to help bring rabbit numbers down.

But Dr Cooke said a combination of built up resistance and complacency has contributed to rising rabbit numbers.

He said rabbits posed a threat to rare plants, including some growing in places like Weston Creek.

"There's quite a number of quite rare orchids on Mount Taylor and the rabbits are a threat to those because rabbits love some of those species of orchids," he said.

"They seek them out, they dig out the bulbs and they eat the flower heads off and they restrict the abundance of quite a number of our native plants, even acacias such as the wattles.

"They nip them off when they're very young plants quite often and people don't realise that if they got rid of the rabbits they'd actually see a lot of these rarer species of plants return."

A spokesperson for the ACT Government said extensive work was being done across conservation areas to try and keep rabbit numbers below the level where they cause damage to the environment.

"Conservation areas in the ACT are monitored through quarterly spotlight monitoring.

"Increases in populations are responded to with control programs that include a range of approved control techniques such as warren destruction, poisoning, fumigation, and shooting," the spokesperson said.

"The ACT Government's biosecurity initiative committed $300,000 over two years for enhanced urban rabbit control. This program is providing highly effective in putting downward pressure on existing rabbit populations across the ACT."

Last November, the government used gas and air gun pellets to cull rabbit numbers on City Hill. Rabbit control operations have also been undertaken at Grevillea Park and were finishing at Quick Street Grasslands in Ainslie and RSL Park in Campbell.

The spokesperson said some 900 rabbits were removed from these locations, not taking into account those that were "controlled by burrow fumigation".

Further rabbit control operations are expected to take place this month in several areas across the ACT, including in parts of Nicholls, Moncrieff, Amaroo, and some areas around Lake Ginninderra in Belconnen.

But Dr Cooke said that while such programs have made a big difference in places like City Hill, the problem needed a broader approach, with rabbit numbers also growing in other cities across the country.

"I think we need to have some sort of a plan because with climate change and perhaps with the rabbits developing a bit more resistance to some of these biological controls ... we could be in for having a lot more rabbits in some of our favourite spots," he said.