DEAR JOAN: I have a question I hope you can answer.
Many years ago, shortly after the end of the second World War, I read in Time Magazine about a fellow in France who got tired of rabbits munching in his garden and introduced a disease to control them. It killed essentially all of the rabbits in France.
Since rabbit was an essential part of the French diet, it caused quite a stir. The story said that they imported about 50 American cottontails that were resistant to the disease.
Is my recollection of the story correct? And, if so, what happened to the cottontails? I hope you can help here. I have wondered about this for many years. I will understand if this is one of those things that just happened to evaporate from the world’s records.
— Robert Culberson, Pleasanton
DEAR ROBERT: Although this story sounds like the ultimate revenge fantasy of any gardener who has watched his or her vegetable patch be ravaged by critters, a portion of it is true.
While I couldn’t find any reports about rabbits being exported to France, the part of the bunny tale about the massive die-off of rabbits in France and other parts of Europe is correct.
In 1952, physician and bacteriologist Paul-Félix Armand-Delille injected two wild European rabbits with myxomatosis virus, a type of pox disease. He owned a large estate in northwestern France and wanted to get rid of the voracious rabbits on his own property. However, the virus quickly spread and within two years had killed up to 95 percent of the rabbit population in France and across Europe.
In 1950, Australia had attempted the same thing, although it deliberately introduced the virus into its European rabbit population with the intention of killing most if not all the rabbits on that continent. The non-native rabbits were brought to Australia in the late 1700s by British settlers as a food source. Some rabbits escaped captivity, became wild and eventually threatened agriculture. Up to 99 percent of the rabbits died from the disease.
But the surviving rabbits adapted, developing and passing along a certain immunity to the disease, and at the same time, the disease mutated into a less virulent strain, making it less deadly.
Myxomatosis remains a threat to rabbits, however, including along California’s coast where outbreaks are reported every few years.
The rabbit slaughter is held up as an example of what happens when humans monkey around with nature. Not only did millions of rabbits die, but the Iberian lynx and the Spanish imperial eagle, animals that rely on rabbits as a food source, were driven to the brink of extinction.
DEAR JOAN: Why doesn’t my cat meow?
— Alexa G., Berkeley
DEAR ALEXA: Some cats are known for their chattiness – Siamese are particularly vocal – and some are more on the quiet side. Among themselves, cats don’t do much meowing, and scientists believe cats meow as a way to communicate with humans.
You must be providing everything your cat needs from you, so you don’t require marching orders. Good job.
Animal Life runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.