This years wild rabbits?

Is it just here or are they a bit thin on the ground this year?
Was out for a wander with the terrier's earlier in a spot that is usually quite active around this time of year and only saw a few, and I remember noticing earlier on in the year in spots where you'd usually be falling over them when walking they seemed less and less.
Wonder if myxi is keeping the numbers right back this year? As have seen quite a few throughout the summer onwards that were in some really horrific states.
Land owned by family and friends that we source rabbit off whether it be shot or taken by our dogs or others (albeit only fit for the dogs to eat when the terriers have caught them!) don't even seem as overpopulated as usual throughout the whole of this year.
Aside from their other uses , I quite like seeing them hopping about the place, but they truly don't seem to be as many as usual throughout the year generally. Wonder if its just here

Now that you come to mention it, it's the same here. Usually, all summer long, at 7 am. I've got loads of rabbits on a certain stretch of my walk, all sitting there along a ridge, and they all scarper the nearer we get, I've even had 20 at a time running down the slope in front of me and over that ridge, but of late, nothing, haven't seen ANY on my morning walk. I was thinking because it was the time of year, maybe they get up later so I miss them?

I wouldn't say I've seen them in a bad state though, maybe the odd one, but considering the amount I see, they all seemed their usual lively selves every morning.

It's very strange, I noticed in the summer too there weren't as many around here and I don't think there were as many young this year either as I usually literally fall over them in a certain field!

Loads here!

Very few this year....

Last year in September I went for a walk locally which was like Bunny Metropolis.... A long banked hedge spread across the middle of three fields - about a quarter of a mile long - and completely covered in holes. And the hedges at the top and bottom of the fields were also covered in holes and rabbits! In the space of about 15 mins I counted at least 60.

There were so many that the ones I scared underground at the top of the field, were back out again by the time I'd walked top the bottom. I even sat with Merlin for a while watching them through my little binoculars, with a few no more than 20 feet away.

This year - same walk, same time of year - NONE! Unbelieveable. As far as I know there's no lamping round here... I can only put it down to the unusually severe winter we had last year (we rarely get snow, but we had two great loads that stayed for many weeks).

Myxi I am sure exists round here but I haven't come across any in the last year, nor on my regular visits to the local area over the past few years before I moved permanently.

They are swarming here!!! More maxi rabbits here too

its odd here... there was LOADS of really healthy ones in the summer..... not as many as i thought there should be now though

Strange how it's differing regionally by the sounds of it, the dogs usually flush them out of the hedges too, see hardly any. The cats haven't even brought one home since August time! Very very strange!
The OH agreed that in spots she'd usually see swarming when driving home are quite empty, she wasn't nearly as understanding of my concern over their lack of numbers, "You're only complaining about there not being many in the fields as that equates to there not being many in the freezer!"
It's not just that....honest!
But on a serious note it does raise a question as to the impact myxi is having this year...

Kent and Scotland often get hard winters - snow and the like - but as I said, rarely in these parts; so if you live in a place that doesn't often get snow, but did last winter, are you also seeing less rabbits? If so, I am assuming it's because they simply weren't used to it.

Myxi might have been killed off by an unusually hard winter in certain areas, too.

I heard on the radio recently a vet phone in, warning people that there are the same warning signs that there was five years ago, right before a myxi outbreak, maybe its happening? The vet was from Reading, Oxfordshire, but I don't know if other areas are affected? But Foxes would eat myxi rabbits, so that might be why your not really seeing them?