You mentioned on shooting a specific number of bunnies per season on your land before. (QRM
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Do you have a # per acre or is it just a number based on what you see. There never seems to be anywhere near the number in the yard by fall as I see in the summer.
Quality Rabbit Management! I love it! I think I am going to start a new organization, whatcha think?
I do limit myself. I read a lot of rabbit hunting stories around the web and I also hear about a lot of people complaining there are hardly any rabbits any more. Whenever I read about a group of 10 or more hunters descending on a farm and shooting 30 rabbits in a day, I often wonder how that is possible to shoot that many and keep up a good population of rabbits? Maybe I am just not familiar with farms that overridden with rabbits. We seem to have quite a few around here, at least they do a lot of damage to the vegetables that's for sure. But the truth is that I love running the dogs so we are willing to tolerate some damage to keep some rabbits around.
I have nothing scientific and it is all by observation. There are 4 core areas on my farm where I hunt rabbits. They are small and do overlap just a bit. But each core area has a least a bit of a terrain feature (such as a creek or an open field) that separates it from the others. In general, I will only shoot 2 rabbits per core area per year. That is enough for me. There are also a couple areas that I have a hard time shooting a rabbit at all due to a multitude of holes to run into. In these areas, I will shoot a rabbit whenever I can which is usually about one a year if I am lucky (no jump shooting rabbits allowed, they have to be run by the dogs first). This year, I think a couple core areas had 3 or 4 shot (some by youth hunters) but last summer was a bumper crop of bunnies. Even with my increased harvest over this season, the population is as high as I have ever seen it for this time of the year. I still have areas where the dogs are going into wood piles and 3 rabbits at a time will come out.
You are so right that there are much fewer rabbits as the season progresses. The population fluctuates with the seasons. Around here winter is a "pinch period" for wildlife, i.e. the time of year when resources are at a minimum. Mother Nature has it built in that rabbits breed during the summer when the most food and cover is available. But since rabbits are a prey species (i.e. they are food for other animals), their population gradually dwindles over the fall and winter once breeding season ends. Right now, their natural population levels should be at the lowest point. In a couple months though, little bunnies will be hopping all over the place once again. There is also a natural overall population cycle that occurs over years. Probably stuff you already know, but I just find this stuff fascinating.