Eagles expected to follow rabbits to Ladner Harbour Park

Bald eagles are expected to spend a lot more time at Ladner Harbour Park now that a colony of feral rabbits is moving in.

Boaz Joseph file photo
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There's likely going to be a new hot spot in town for bird watchers who want to catch a glimpse of bald eagles.

With 500 feral rabbits now being relocated from Delta's civic precinct to Ladner Harbour Park, local birds of prey are expected to follow hot on their heels.

Bev Day, founding director of Delta's Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (OWL), said the Ladner Harbour Park area is already home to barred owls and great horned owls.

"But when there's a lot of bunnies around, and especially at this time of year, you end up with the (bald) eagles," she said.

Day said there is also the potential for red-tailed hawks to be drawn to the park.

On Jan. 9, Delta council endorsed a feral rabbit management plan that will see the population of bunnies in the civic precinct captured, sterilized, identified and released at Ladner Harbour Park.

Municipal staff hope the $60,000 program puts an end to the property damage, and health and safety concerns posed by the fast-growing rabbit colony—a result of generations of abandoned pets.

Day said the rabbits will be more susceptible to a wider variety of predatory birds at their new home.

And because the feral rabbits descend from domestic breeds, Day said "they're like sitting ducks" because they do not have the same fear instinct as wild rabbits.

David Bradbeer, program co-ordinator at Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust, speculates the relocated rabbits will be targeted by birds, as well as coyotes.

"I would suspect there might be higher predation because there's less traffic, more trees that they (birds) can perch in—but you never know," he said.

One of his organization's initiatives is to plant native trees and shrubs, which provide wildlife habitat on local farmland. Bradbeer wonders if the incoming rabbit population will have any effect on native species at Ladner Harbour Park.

"We have problems with eastern cottontail—which is a rabbit–coming into the hedgerows and eating native trees and shrubs and especially the new growth," he said. "I'm curious what would happen to the native vegetation that is there (Ladner Harbour Park). Are they (rabbits) going to have no impact? Are they going to have some impact? And what does that mean for the other species that rely on that vegetation?"

Meanwhile, Day cautions the public against dumping their pet rabbits at Ladner Harbour Park.