This really does sound like it should be reality tv: "The Great Rabbit Roundup".
So the difficult part of this is that in order to catch them, you kinda need to round them up with quad bikes and scramblers and then catch them by hand by jumping off the bike on them.
I have great images of this. Really, really great images of this. It should horrify me - I once flew off a motorbike and broke both bones in my left forearm so bad they needed metal plates. Yet, I am impressed by these visuals.
Elton came riding past on one of the scramblers and didn't stop. He shouted something in passing but I couldn't hear it over the noise of the bike.
This begs the question... why did he not just jump off the bike? 😁
My joking aside, I love the idea of conservation. It's a truly good idea with great intentions. Hopefully no people nor hares are harmed in the making of these truly great stories.
Oh gosh breaking bones from flying off bikes is never the way that you want it to go. It's always a possibility but luckily that didn't happen to anyone on bunny catching.
If you knew Elton, I think you would understand lol.
Conservation was all that I lived back then. I ate, slept, dreampt, breathed conservation and I loved the field work. The politics and the red tape and corruption - well not so much. It can be quite soul destroying work because there isn't much political will backing it in this country. I could bore you with the horrors of what I learned while in the industry, but I will choose to refrain. Looking back, I don't regret the reasons for leaving the industry, I miss it so much but it was literally killing me. When your doctor looks at you when you're 28 and says "If you continue on the path you're on, you're heading for a heart attack before 50", well it makes you wonder if you're putting in more than you're getting in return.
There are sometimes casualties in the work that field rangers do as my one previous post on a Hippo capture conveyed. You have to be made of strong stuff to do it.
Thanks for coming by and having a read. I hope to put in more of these little stories from my experiences back then.