Oma rāpeti - run rabbit - you have one last chance. Auckland Council has pressed pause on a plan to cull wild rabbits in Western Springs park so people can rescue domestic bunnies that have been dumped there before the shoot starts.
"We put it on hold because a member of the public ....[asked if they] could have a try and we thought it was about raising awareness of the troubles it carries when people dump domestic pets in the parks and it wouldn't have a major effect on our rabbit cull operation.
"Yes, there are not many domestic rabbits but we thought it was important to accommodate the request."
He said chickens and geese have been dumped in other Auckland parks previously.
In the last two years 200 chickens have been rehomed in the suburb of Titirangi.
"The problem is moderate [in scale] I would say."
The first wild rabbit cull in Western Springs Park two years ago saw 200 rabbits culled in one night, another event three months ago netted just 16.
He said the council has the numbers under much better control now and he expected the next cull to only result in about 10 to 15 being culled.
Stejskal said rabbits are good breeders and can have litters in around four weeks after mating, so the population could increase ten-fold in a year without controls.
"Rabbits really enjoy eating small native plants and eating the bark of the more mature native plants... so they cause a lot of damage to our turfs, sports fields, and they damage the native plants which were often planted by the local community and schools, just like in Western Springs."
The cull is carried out overnight by a small group of shooters. It is carefully managed in terms of health and safety and police are made aware of the hours it is occurring, Stejskal said.
The park is closed for the duration of the cull.
