In the last two years, some municipalities in Osona have gone from having an average density of 15 rabbits per square kilometer to 50, the limit for declaring a hunting emergency. This situation has caused Acció Climàtica to activate measures to control rabbit populations in 17 municipalities in the region and thus avoid affecting crops.
Among others, it has been decided to advance the hunting season, assume the costs of chipping and registering ferrets – the animals used for hunting – and create a dialogue table with different agents involved. The director of Acció Climàtica’s Territorial Services, Josep Pena, says that in Osona “we are still there to react” and prevent the situation in Lleida from reaching the situation.
As already happened in Lleida, the rabbit has found ideal terrain in the Osona plain to expand. As Pena explained this Friday, this is due to the proximity to road and railway infrastructure, dispersed centers and the existence of regular crops that are their source of food. In fact, in the last two years it has gone from 15 specimens per km² to 50.
Anticipating the possibility that the size of the population will be difficult to manage, the Department has begun to apply measures to alleviate the economic losses to agricultural farms, especially cereal and forage farms. Pena has made it clear that in Osona we are still far from reaching the figures of Lleida, where the density exceeded 200 rabbits per km². “In Lleida the problem is bigger, here we have detected it in time,” says Pena, who is “optimistic” and believes that they will be able to control the overpopulation of rabbits.
The 17 municipalities affected are Calldetenes, Folgueroles, Gurb, l’Esquirol, Manlleu, les Masies de Roda, les Masies de Voltregà, Roda de Ter, Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà, Santa Cecilia de Voltregà, Santa Eugènia de Berga, Taradell, Tavernoles, Tavertet, Torelló, Vic
Jaume Prat is a farmer from the Vic plain and has been suffering from the ravages of rabbits for some time and lives with “impotence.” He assures that, unlike wild boars that “devastate your fields in 24 hours”, rabbits “act more slowly.”
“The rabbits first scratch and eat the seed and, as the crop emerges, they graze and do damage,” says this farmer, who says that they do more damage to winter crops than to summer crops because they grow more slowly. In this sense, he regrets the economic losses that farmers have because of these animals and makes it clear that they are “faster and more effective than us.”
Prat also regrets that the farmers are “defenseless” in the face of this situation and assures that the results “are very slow.” He believes that rabbit populations have become larger in areas close to urban centers because here “there is no wildlife and, therefore, they have no predators.”
Prat is afraid that Osona’s situation will mirror that of Lleida and points out that “the farmers are hanging by a thread” and, therefore, asks for quick action. “This year there has been a drought and many people will leave the union. If the country does not support the peasantry, they are dead,” he laments.
This summer the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda has already implemented several measures to control the rabbit population and minimize damage to crops. In addition, they explain that they will assume the costs of registering and shaving the ferrets in the Osona region and also in neighboring areas. According to the Animal Protection Act, ferrets must be chipped and, therefore, the Department has offered to cover the cost of identifying these animals, which are the property of hunters.
One of the measures that has already been applied is the advancement of the hunting season. The season has been modified and, in this way, you can hunt from August 20 in the hunting areas. In just four weeks, according to Department data, hunters have been able to capture up to 1,037 specimens and this represents a fifth of the total number of rabbits that were captured in the entire previous season.
The hunting period has also been modified, since this, according to the Department, allows hunting pressure to be maintained over time and thus avoids positive growth rates. During 2022 and 2023, the hunting period was extended for 10 weeks between February and April. This pressure allowed the number of captures to almost double compared to the business season (2020-21), reaching 4,870 rabbits during the 2022-23 season.
In addition, a dialogue table has been created with the main actors to be able to manage conflicts that the rabbit may cause in the forest. Among others, meetings have been held with owners of the private hunting areas of the affected municipalities, with representatives of the peasantry and agrarian entities of the region, and with the mayors and councilors of the town councils. In this sense, Pena has stressed that the problem of rabbits is a “multifaceted and multifunctional” problem and, therefore, “it must be addressed through co-management and dialogue with all the agents of the territory involved.”
Finally, hunting methods with ferrets, nets and dogs have been promoted, which increase the efficiency of captures. These modalities are applied in places where the vegetation provides shelter for rabbits or in areas where hunting with firearms is restricted, either because they are places near highways, paths or inhabited areas.
The president of the hunters’ association of Roda de Ter – one of the affected municipalities -, Isaac Manubens, explained that “for years” they have been collaborating with the administration and farmers to address wildlife control. “We are not professionals or pest controllers, but we try to do our bit to control overpopulations,” he clarified.
In this sense, he explained that all the work they do is “voluntary” and they do not receive any help. “We have less and less social recognition, we are frowned upon by society and, therefore, we ask for a little recognition from citizens because we are not committing any crime, we are helping to solve a problem,” she pointed out.
Regarding the control of the rabbit population, Manubens has said that ferrets are the most effective system, especially in areas close to roads and in houses, since shotguns cannot be used here. Precisely these are the areas where the most rabbits accumulate, explained the hunter, who says that there can be up to 100 rabbits per km². Manubens explains that what ferrets do is enter rabbit burrows and make them come out quickly: “They only scare them, they don’t hurt them.” Once they leave, the hunters capture them alive with nets and then sacrifice them.
