Nature: Rabbiting on ... and on

In the late 1980s I became well acquainted with a small warren of rabbits in upper Glen Dye in Aberdeenshire, spending many summer evenings on a slope above the complex of burrows, the vantage point being good not only to observe their behaviour, but also to watch deer and birds of prey.

Rather than being simple animals, the rabbit has a complex social life where a strict hierarchy is maintained, with the dominant males siring the most offspring and the lead females having access to the best burrows for nesting.

Such a pecking order was easy to discern among the Glen Dye rabbits, with the peaceful evening scene of small groups feeding on the short grass occasionally interrupted by frantic chases as a dominant animal tried to see off a lesser one. If danger threatened, such as when I made a noise as I moved to return home, then the scatter of rabbits down into their burrows would sometimes be accompanied by a distinct thump of the back feet, which acts as a warning signal. I have since found out from my children's pet rabbits that the feet are also thumped when excited, for example at feeding time.

Another interesting feature of the Glen Dye rabbits was that a few of them were black, a genetic aberration possibly aided by the relative isolation of the colony. The rabbit is one of our commonest animals, which makes it all the more surprising that it is not native to Britain, having been introduced to our shores by the Normans as a source of food and fur. They were certainly popular to eat in medieval times and there are many references to rabbits in recipes from the period such as conys in hogepoche, a simple dish where rabbit was stewed in ale and minced onions.

A native of the western Mediterranean, following their introduction to Britain in the 12th century they were at first kept in managed warrens. Over the intervening centuries they slowly spread, but by the late 1700s the population had exploded due to changes in farming practices creating an ideal habitat. This boom was aided by the growth in shooting estates and the resultant increased persecution of predators such as foxes.

By the mid-20th century the rabbit had become a serious agricultural pest, with an estimated 100 million animals in Britain causing more than 50 million worth of damage to crops every year. It was even worse in Australia where the introduced rabbit population was wreaking havoc.

The situation dramatically changed with the introduction by man of the myxoma virus to rabbits in Australia in 1950. Infected rabbits were also released near Paris in 1952 with the first myxomatosis-affected animals being found in Kent the following year. By 1956, an estimated 95 per cent of the British rabbit population had succumbed.The impact was not only catastrophic for the rabbit, but also bad news for predators such as foxes, stoats? and buzzards. Increased immunity and genetic resistance to the virus has aided recovery in rabbit numbers in recent decades - albeit not to former levels. It is likely that one of the reasons for the lower populations of today can be attributed to a threat in the form of the highly contagious rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD) that has manifested itself in the UK since the 1990s. There are real fears that RVHD could mirror the initial impact of myxomatosis in Scotland causing rabbit numbers to plunge and resulting in almost total wipeout in specific areas.

Although an undoubted pest to agriculture and forestry, rabbits do play a useful ecological role in some situations, not just as food for predatory animals but also through their grazing activities creating patches of neatly cropped grass that are beneficial for certain insects and small wildflowers that would otherwise be engulfed by taller-growing plants.

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on 23 April 2011