The Rabbit
by Jill Mason
The rabbit was not originally a wild animal in Britain. For a thousand years, it was an important commodity, farmed since the Dark Ages in man-made warrens for its precious meat and fur.
Some escaped and thrived until, in the 1950s, they far outnumbered the human population in the UK.
Then man introduced myxomatosis and killed it in the millions. And today, supermarket rabbit meat is more likely to have been imported from China than from our estimated wild population of 40 million rabbits.
Jill Mason puts the currently under-rated wild rabbit back into context. With beautiful photographic illustrations by David Mason, she explains its lifecycle, its behaviour, breeding, feeding habits, its influence on the UK economy, landscape and eco-system and, above all, its incredible adaptability and resourcefulness, which brings the species back from the brink of extinction to pest proportions again and again, in all corners of the earth, from semi-desert to meadowland.
With a previously unpublished reference section on the sites of the UK’s former commercial rabbit warrens.
Availability:
Illustrations:
90 Colour photographs, 30 Black & white photographs
Pages:
192
Published:
Sep 03, 2015
ISBN:
9781906122980
About the Author:
Jill Mason was one of Britain’s first women gamekeepers, a job which she enjoyed for over 30 years. She has lived and worked in the countryside all her life and has written for several country and fieldsports magazines.
She is the author of several books including The Rabbit, The Hare and The Townies’ Guide to the Countryside, Rural England, and Away My Lads, Away and The Ennerdale and Eskdale Hunt.
She lives in Norfolk with her husband David Mason, also a retired gamekeeper.
David Mason, whose pictures appear throughout her books, is a keen wildlife and countryside photographer whose work has been published in many books, magazines and newspapers.
Jill Mason was one of Britain’s first women gamekeepers, a job which she enjoyed for over 30 years. She has lived and worked in the countryside all her life and has written for several country and fieldsports magazines.
She is the author of several books including The Rabbit, The Hare and The Townies’ Guide to the Countryside, Rural England, and Away My Lads, Away and The Ennerdale and Eskdale Hunt.
She lives in Norfolk with her husband David Mason, also a retired gamekeeper.
David Mason, whose pictures appear throughout her books, is a keen wildlife and countryside photographer whose work has been published in many books, magazines and newspapers.