The 24 Rabbits That Took Over Australia

Twenty-four rabbits arrived in Australia in 1859. Within decades, their descendants had spread across an entire continent. What began as a wealthy landowner’s hunting hobby became one of the fastest and most destructive mammal invasions ever recorded. Australia responded with hunters, poison, hundreds of thousands of kilometres of rabbit-proof fencing — and eventually deadly viruses designed to wipe the rabbits out. But the strangest part is that rabbits had already been introduced to Australia many times before. Those populations never took over. So why did these rabbits succeed? Modern genetic research has helped reveal the answer, connecting Thomas Austin’s small 1859 shipment to the enormous rabbit population that transformed Australia’s landscape. This is the story of how a seemingly harmless animal became an ecological disaster — and how the battle against it became one of the clearest examples of evolution happening in real time. #History #AustralianHistory #Science #Evolution #Rabbits