New Zealand's Easter Bunny Cull Bags 8,000
Hunters from around the world converged on New Zealand over the Easter holiday to bury the Easter Bunny, not to praise him. More than 300 shooters participated in the 24-hour Great Easter Bunny Hunt in Central Otago, bagging a total of 8,439 bunnies.
Rabbits were introduced to the country in the 1830s for food and sport, but they quickly reproduced to plague proportions, causing serious ecological damage.
Efforts to control the population have ranged from hunting the hares with dogs to releasing a biological toxin that targets them.
And while many of the hoppers have been killed, the survivors are becoming immune to the rabbit hemorrhagic disease, allowing their numbers to rebound.
Over the past 24 years, the annual bunny hunt has culled a total of 287,679 rabbits from Central Otago farmland.
After the carcasses are counted each year, most are buried in a deep pit, while others are collected by dog owners for pet food.
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