Red Rock Rabbits

In the year 2000 we began a major overhaul of the farm and its environs.

The first to go were our unwelcome and thirsty invasive aliens. The next step was to combat any soil erosion due to the removal of forested areas. Then followed a massive undertaking, almost seven thousand individual seedlings of Erica, Protea and Restio families were planted in the newly cleared area. I must also mention that this attitude has not been taken by us alone, a major success in establishing the Franschhoek Mountain Conservancy, Boekenhoutskloof and Three Streams have done considerable work clearing alien infested areas, Montagne Farm has been clean for ages now and the whole area seems to be so much healthier. We still have a great deal of work left to do.

The onset of pioneer species and the natural re seeding and regeneration of the flora was magnificent to see. We now have seen on a number of occasions, evidence of a Smiths Red Rock Rabbit family. I am more used to seeing this rather shy rabbit up in the wilderness of the Cederberg, it is not often seen so close to agriculture.

Pronalgus rupestris, identified by Andrew Smith in 1834, is one of the smaller species of rabbit we have occurring in southern Africa. It’s a close cousin to the critically endangered Riverine Rabbit, whose population is estimated to be a few hundred.

The Smiths Red Rock Rabbit are mostly nocturnal, sheltering in the rocky burrows they excavate in the fynbos. These runs can be up to 300 metres long depending on where they are digging. Given our rocky slopes I doubt they get anywhere near this length. They tend to forage mostly on grasses at sundown time, which is unfortunate as this is when their main predators; the Spotted and Cape Eagle Owls are most actively hunting. The youngsters scream if disturbed, and the bigger males emit a loud grunt as their warning call. I believe the influx of activity we have noticed after the fires in the last two seasons has been due to the loss of most of the natural cover, as well is it much easier to spot their eating locations, small tufts of restios which have been very neatly pruned!

It has been amazing to see the return of the natural environment within the conservancy. Apart from the initial replanting, everything up in the mountain area has been pretty much left to nature. What better indication does one need that we are doing something right?