Too much free time in Helsinki
This is what happens to societies when they solve all the other problems they had to face.
Helsinki’s urban rabbits have caused damage in excess of hundreds of thousands of euros
Their main problem now is… rabbits!!
In the past two winters Helsinki’s burgeoning wild rabbit population - descendants of escaped or abandoned pet rabbits - has caused damage in the city’s parks running into several hundreds of thousands of euros.
The devastation accrues from trees and bushes dying where they stand, as their bark is being gnawed by the pests. In Helsinki, there are thousands of individual plants suffering from damage caused by rabbits.
“On one of the waterfront streets in the Sörnäinen district, the rabbits nibbled a row of elms into such poor condition that the trees had to be removed”, explains nature expert Tuuli Ylikotila from the City of Helsinki Public Works Department.
Just one new tree costs in excess of EUR 2,000 to plant. In Sörnäinen, 70 new trees would have been required.
This year, the Finnish capital has managed to protect its trees against rabbit incursions slightly better then the year before with the result that the animals have diverted their attentions towards the city’s shrubs and bushes instead.
The lilacs in the Hesperia Park and the Brahe area of Kallio, in particular, have been of especial culinary interest to the rabbits this year.
The mild winter has further worsened the problem by aiding the rabbits in their breeding.
There are signs that due to the snowless and warm conditions the rabbits have produced young even during the winter months, between November and February, which is extremely rare.
The Finnish Museum of Natural History has now commenced a research project, the purpose of which is to look into the breeding efficiency of the urban rabbits.
This coming summer all previous records are expected to be shattered. According to estimates there are up to five thousands wild rabbits living in Helsinki.
The population in Helsinki is now so large that the animals are starting to claim living space in Espoo. Rabbits have been spotted in Mankkaa, for instance.
Vantaa residents will also not be spared from having the bushes in their backyards gnawed within an inch of their lives, as the creatures have already reached Haltiala in the northern part of the capital, and they move fast.
One female rabbit can produce 20 young in a summer. Since the central Helsinki rabbits have few natural enemies, their survival rate is high.
There are a few large eagle owls (including one famous one) and some foxes, but not enough to keep the rabbit population at bay. At the botanical gardens of the University of Helsinki, there is also reportedly a stoat, but that alone is hardly a solution to the problem.
The populations of the rabbits’ natural enemies cannot really grow either, for the central Helsinki area is decidedly void of peaceful nesting grounds.
Rabbits have previously been hunted with bow and arrow, but now the ante has been upped. The Public Works Department will try to catch the pests with nets at three allotment garden areas. The caught rabbits will then be gassed to death, before their bodies are handed over to researchers for further studies.
Though the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has also granted an exceptional temporary permit to hunt down the rabbits with small-bore rifles and lights, the coarsest ways of dealing with a rabbit problem used elsewhere in the world are hardly suitable for the downtown areas of the Finnish capital.
“One cannot just start shooting and planting poison in the Hesperia Park”, one expert says.
The best place to spot a wild rabbit in central Helsinki is the Töölönlahti Bay area. The National Opera lawn is Helsinki’s most rabbit-rich place, but if the city starts getting tough, it is unlikely that a love of bel canto will be enough to spare the creatures.