Four-legged fiends wreak havoc in cemeteries

[depakid]

BLOOD curdling horror … spine chilling terror. Beware: the attack of the grave-robbing bunnies.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/11/28/rabbit_narrowweb__300x430,0.jpg

Cemeteries across NSW are fighting an uphill battle against rabbits, which destabilise headstones, endanger graveyard workers and upset the bereaved by digging up graves.

"They normally don't dig down to the coffin, although that could happen, but mainly they cause soil subsidence and ultimately, collapse," said the National Trust's cemeteries adviser, George Gibbons.

"You have rabbits where the digging is easy, and cemeteries are in diggable country. It's a very common problem."

Grave subsidence occurs naturally as the coffin collapses about 20 years after burial but pests can speed up that process, Dr Gibbons said.

"Wombats are an even bigger problem because they dig larger holes and tend to be a more determined beast. We have tried to fill the holes with cobbles or napthalene but they come back whatever you do."

More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/fourlegged-fiends-wreak-havoc/2008/11/28/1227491827192.html

[Adsos Letter]

1. "Calling Steven King...Mr. King...Mr. King?"

:D

[kestrel91316]

2. Somebody needs to do something to attract and keep some native

RAPTORS down under, it looks like. If they have any.

[depakid]

5. That's a really great idea

In the Portland metropolitan area, there are all sorts of raptors- including peregrin falcons that have been actively encouraged to nest in buildings and on bridges.

Around the Newcastle area- which is a similar suburban/rural mix to say, a warm Eugene Oregon on the coast, you don't see too many large raptors- even in the bush reserves and wetlands.

Head inland up the Hunter Valley and you can spot a lot more overhead, wedgetail eagles, goshawks, harriers. Seems to make sense to encourage them into problem areas....

[LiberalEsto]

3. Bunnicula lives!

And the Celery Stalks at Midnight.

[NNadir]

4. Napthalene?

Actually Rabbits are a huge imported pest in Australia, requiring the importation of myxamatosis.

Ugly seen that.

Myxomatosis


Caught in the center of a soundless field
While hot inexplicable hours go by
What trap is this? Where were its teeth concealed?
You seem to ask.
I make a sharp reply,
Then clean my stick. I'm glad I can't explain
Just in what jaws you were to suppurate:
You may have thought things would come right again
If you could only keep quite still and wait.

Philip Larkin