Rabbit
Oryctolagus cuniculus
Cwningen
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 Photo by Andrew Graham |
Status:
Found throughout Snowdonia but patchy in its distribution. A native lagomorph, with no protection under any legislation except that hunting with dogs is now banned.
Rabbits are a common and widespread mammal in Snowdonia, but numbers vary in different areas. They can have a very significant impact on vegetation in an area where they are numerous, suppressing certain species entirely and reducing regeneration of others.
Rabbit numbers were severely reduced in the 1950s by the disease myxomatosis, but have largely recovered from that now. Myxomatosis is still around in wild populations but is tends to have less effect these days. More recently another disease, RHD (rabbit heamorrhagic disease) has surfaced and can lead to local population crashes.
Rabbits are the main prey for a number of our mammalian predators, notably stoats, polecats and American mink. There is some evidence that fox numbers can regulate rabbit numbers, but it is unlikely to be significant in Snowdonia. Certainly rabbit numbers can be higher in areas where predator control is widely practised.