Where are the predators?

12 years ago

For the first time in my memory living in this area, we are overrun by rabbits and voles. I'm not seeing many owls and hawks this year, I am wondering if the tornado last May in Joplin played a major part in it. I know there was a tremendous loss of habitat with more than a third of Joplin's trees gone, but I also wonder if the nesting season was also majorly disrupted, nests destroyed and birds killed. My husband suggested also that perhaps the rabbits were driven into undamaged areas where there is still habitat. There is definitely a serious imbalance of predators and prey here.

Not only that, I am seeing less songbirds. No mockingbirds at all, and we usually have at least two pair.

And my emerging hostas are getting eaten. Grrr! Tomorrow there will be a trip to Lowe's for the Repellex I saw there last fall!

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Comments (3)

leafwatcher
12 years ago
We are starting to get quite a few Bald Eagles around here.. and we have had many hawks for quite awhile.. I see very few rabbits anymore out at my Moms farm.
Steve Massachusetts
12 years ago
I don't know about the rabbits, but vole populations are cyclical. Some years you are overrun and some years there are only a few. Voles typically have a territory of only about a quarter of an acre, so they're probably not from Joplin. Bunnies may be different. Voles are also a main source of predator food, so you are right that there may be an imbalance. Go get em.

Steve
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mosswitch
Original Author
12 years ago
One of the local predators showed up today, probably the biggest black snake I've ever seen; about 5' long and almost as big around as my wrist. Coal black, shiny and laid all the way across the path with no intention of moving for little old me, until I nudged it with my foot. Then it meandered off on its own sweet time into the brush pile, where I assume it lives. Go Blackie! Get them voles!