Where have all the rabbits gone?

Rabbits in the grass kissing at springtime — (Image credit: Alamy)

Do you remember walking through fields as a child and rabbits darting out from under your feet? There used to be dozens: little Flopsies, Mopsies and Cotton-Tails and, of course, the odd Peter, who would go rogue and end up in the farmer’s garden only to re-emerge with a carrot, happy as Larry. You’d be lucky to see even one of them today. As we celebrate the arrival of spring, the rabbits that had previously danced around us in a pastoral conga line are nowhere to be found. Wild populations have fallen by 67%, estimates suggest, and upwards of 80% in regions such as Scotland and the East Midlands. Myxomatosis, a disease that causes swelling and skin lesions, was first to ravage the bunnies. Now, a second variant of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV2) is devastating them.

Campaigners made some noise around this during covid, as city dwellers turned to the country in droves and realised it was not quite the Beatrix Potter picture book they’d imagined. The momentum to help the rabbits has dwindled, but as we near breaking point, those in the know have begun to sound the alarm. Adam Hunt, a Somerset-based landscape designer who drew acclaim for his wild garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2022, says a world with fewer rabbits is inevitable — but that we can help stymie the decline.

Brown hare — Hares, too, are threatened by RHDV2: targeting the disease is paramount to preserving what little biodiversity we have left

Planting more brambles to help ward off predators and prevent the rabbit's numbers from depleting further would be a start, says Mr Hunt, who believes RHDV2 is going to force 'a change in behaviour' as it favours animals who burrow less. Diana Bell, Emeritus Professor of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia, is not so sure. 'RHDV2 has spread to multiple continents and has also leapt onto hares, which are more solitary and live above ground,' she says. 'We really need to target the disease itself.'

We have every incentive to help our floppy-eared friends. Rabbits are Nature’s ecosystem engineers, a keystone species on which many other animals rely. Not only are they a food source (to foxes, badgers, buzzards and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) but, being selective grazers, they also keep more vigorous grasses in check, allowing wildflowers to grow. This, in turn, lends life to more insects.

Their burrows help to germinate seeds and create what ecologists call mini-mosaics: patches of land where invertebrates and lizards are permitted to thrive. RHDV2's decimation of rabbits and all they represent is a decimation of Britain's wildlife at large. Vaccines are already widely used on their domestic cousins: we now need a national programme to help those in the wild. If Europe can do it for fox rabies, we can do it for rabbits, too.

This feature originally appeared in the March 25, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

Will Hosie is Country Life's Lifestyle Editor and a contributor to A Rabbit's Foot and Semaine. He also edits the Substack @gauchemagazine. He not so secretly thinks Stanely Tucci should've won an Oscar for his role in The Devil Wears Prada.