Te Anau and Manapouri's urban rabbit population appears to finally be in the firing line after the Southland District Council (SDC) publicised yesterday (29 Mar) that rabbit pest control operations were to begin.

Winton based New Zealand Conservation Services will commence rabbit control after Easter, along Te Anau's foreshore, from the rugby grounds to the Upukeroa River mouth.

Operations will also be undertaken along Frasers Beach in Manapouri and on SDC reserve land on Manapouri Hillside Road.

The work will involve both shooting and fumigation.

Fiordland Community Board chairperson Diane Holmes said she had asked SDC last year (2022) if something could be done about the rabbit population after receiving a number of complaints.

Holmes said the current control was a one-off response to the complaints, however she had also asked for a longer-term strategy around the problem.

"I'm sure with the way that rabbits enjoy each other's company, romantically, it will probably come up again no doubt in the not too distant future," Holmes said.

Holmes said while no-one was specifically rated for pest control, ratepayers were rated for community facilities which included [council] parks and reserves.

"It's up to each individual landowner to look after their own patch under the Environment Act," she said.

However Fiordland's urban Canada geese problem appears to remain unaffected by this latest control programme.

They were "tremendously more complicated than rabbits" and crossed multiple boundaries of Department of Conservation, Environment Southland and SDC land, she said.