Environment Southland has hired contractors to carry out rabbit control, by way of night shooting, between 15 and 29 August on Invercargill stop banks and retention dams.

The control will take place on two nights in this period on rural sections of the Waihōpai, Kingswell, Clifden and Kennington stop banks, the Waihōpai retention dam and spillway, and Otepuni and Kingswell rentetion dams.

The contractors will also inspect the remainder of the stop banks to assess rabbit numbers but no shooting will take place in the urban area. This shooting is not a threat to domestic pets.

Catchment Operations Manager Randal Beal said this work would initially be carried out over all of the stop banks and retention dams to assess the number of rabbits present.

“We need to do this rabbit control before spring when the population will grow. During our annual inspection programme we discovered that the rabbits are damaging the stop banks and retention dams and if we do not cull the population before we do repairs then we would be setting ourselves up for further repairs down the track,” he said.

“We are asking the public to avoid the areas during the shooting times, if possible. Signage will be put up in the areas and staff will be out as spotters.”

Updates will be put out on the Environment Southland Facebook page to say which nights shooting will be done.

Ongoing rabbit control would happen on a monthly basis depending on which areas showed a large numbers of rabbits, he said.

The contractors are an experienced operator, with several years’ experience carrying out this type of pest control work within town and city boundaries. They are police vetted.

Police will be notified prior to the start and finish of each nights’ work.