Rabbit in clover on Dinas Island

If you’d like a project while you’re staying in Dinas, the Mammal Society is looking for help in mapping populations of rabbits and hares in the UK. See here for more details. Apart from the catastrophic myxomatosis outbreak in the 1950s which killed 95% of all rabbits in the UK, rabbits have flourished in the Dinas area and you won’t have to go far before you come across them. Lots! I have never seen any hares, however.

During the second world war a group of young men from the Dinas area did their bit to control the local rabbit population (and supplement their own incomes at the same time) by catching enormous numbers of the animals. Every weekend they would load 2,000 or so onto the train at Goodwick, destined for Birmingham, where rabbit meat was a welcome addition to the frugal war-time diet.