Assured Environmental Services have recently finished their rabbit control work for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, in conjunction with the Limestone Country Project. Regular reporting and feedback was required to assess where the rabbits were caught, the numbers being caught and also the methods being used, which involved traditional approaches, such as trapping, shooting and ferreting or gassing.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park, Limestone Country Project, are expecting individual landowners to take up their own rabbit control, if they didn’t have it already.
Assured Environmental Services have also recently completed project work, controlling rabbits for Natural England at their Moorhouse-Upper Teesdale Reserve, which they started four years ago. An initial consultation was carried out, whereby Assured Environmental Services helped to advise on rabbit management techniques, which would be suitable for the sensitive nature of the site,Teesdale, on which the rare Sugar Limestone can be found.
This has led to Natural England doing their own box trapping, and the keepers on the surrounding areas of moorland, carrying out lamping of the rabbits. Assured Environmental Services have carried out gassing around the Sugar Limestone and surrounding habitats so as to keep control of rabbits around the area.
Alistair McEntyre, from Assured Environmental Services, says “A lot of our rabbit control is interlinked with other wildlife and habitat management projects, using traditional methods and also gassing A varied approach is best for rabbit control and each individual situation needs a detailed plan, suitable for each particular piece of ground”.