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@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 1/ ah yes.. Rabbits.. natures natural "living fractal", oh how they iterate and multiply, chaos theory in practice ;-)
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 2/ did you know our latest estimation indicates there are as many as 10 billion feral rabbits in Australia.. imagine if we converted them into a natural food source, we could literally feed every homeless person in Australia for a million years !! 
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 3/ bloody domesticated rabbits arrived with convicts on the first fleet circa 1788
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 4/ first feral rabbit population was discovered & reported in Tasmania circa 1827
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 5/ stupidly in 1859, about twenty-four rabbits were released for hunting purposes at Thomas Austin’s Victorian property Barwon Park, and most apparently escaped enclosures after a fire..
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 6/ by 1886, it was discovered that feral rabbit populations had reached the New South Wales and Queensland borders
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 7/ in Trump like style, in the early 1900's, the world’s largest rabbit proof fence, stretching some 1,700km end to end, was erected to keep rabbits out of Western Australia
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 8/ by the start of 1910, Rabbits have spread across most of Australia in plague proportions and were officially recognised as an "introduced" pest we would never eradicate !!
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 9/ as early as the start of 1920, It was estimated that there are up to 10 billion feral rabbits in Australia, since then it's been impossible to accurately measure them..
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 10/ somewhere in the 1930's - the Australian government pushes bounty hunting and poisoning to control rabbits, to no avail of course, as if you're going to "trap" or "shoot" ten billion of "any" living animal to any measurable "effect" ;-)
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 11/ by 1950 Australia makes the move to release Myxoma virus (Myxomatosis) in the wild to control the feral rabbit population.. another failed idea.. and flow on effects are still to be measured.. it's likely to attack other native wildlife before we know it..
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 11/ by the 1970's, Feral rabbit numbers increase as populations develop resistance to Myxomatosis ( anyone surprised by this? no.. evolution finds a way.. ) - anyone know how exponential growth models function ;-)
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 12/ a year before I was born, circa 1996, another insane idea was launched - the federal government at the time approves the release of the Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV1) in another filed effort to further control the feral rabbit population (Myxoma taught us nothing)?
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 13/ and then in 2009, scientists discovered a natural strain of calicivirus (RCV-A1) which causes resistance to RHDV.. if anyone is surprised, they are stupid, because, again.. evolution works, has done for billions of years, nature "finds a way".. have we learned anything yet?
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 14/ by 2016 the federal government issues a general blank statement that "researchers are working on new tools to manage rabbits in Australia" - ermagherd, really, how's that working out ;-)
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 15/ and just to prove we are insane, and have literally learned NOTHING from prior failed introductions of Rabbit diseases, in 2017 Australia released an imported Korean strain of RHDV1 (K5) .. I bet you one $BILLION dollars I can predict how that will work out ;-)
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 16/ Rabbits are Australia’s most costly pest animal, they cause and estimated AUD$206 million in losses each year to the agricultural industry
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 17/ One of the biggest issues is Rabbits compete with grazing stock ( also an introduced animal of course ) for food, contribute to soil erosion, damage crops and destabilise the land, potentially leading to injury of livestock
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 18/ Rabbits threaten the survival of more than 300 Australian native flora and fauna species ;-(
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 19/ Sadly as many as 24 critically endangered #Aussie native species such as the pygmy possum, orange-bellied parrot and ballerina orchid are at risk because of the introduced pest, the Rabbit.. heart breaking tragic outcomes..
@CraigMinns @MathsParty_MPA @kcarruthers @stratphy @TheFatSplatCat @chrispeers19 @margaret_tmsinc @WhistlingWhist 20/ as few as one rabbit per football field sized paddock is enough to stop the growth of some native species and negatively affect biodiversity.. imagine the impact of 10,000,000,000 ( ten billion ) or ore of them have on our island nation ;-(
