Richard Collins: The original wild rabbit is endangered — so why are its domesticated descendants thriving?

An Englishman released 24 rabbits on his Australian estate in 1859. By 1920 an estimated 20 billion rabbits had colonised 70% of the country in what scientists have called "one of the biggest environmental disasters in history"

We had rabbit infestations in Ireland, thanks to the Normans, who introduced these unwelcome visitors and established warrens, mainly on islands. They became ubiquitous throughout much of rural Ireland until the 1950s when biological warfare, in the form of myxomatosis, was used

Rabbits are both loved and hated. Literati, from Beatrix Potter to John Updike, celebrate them but few landowners do so... bunnies raid crops and burrow into banks... archaeologists accuse them of disturbing ancient sites.

These little vegetarians are native to Spain and Portugal. When the Romans invaded Iberia, two thousand years ago, they brought some back to the Eternal City. The legions took them northwards as far as Britain. It has been argued that medieval monks domesticated rabbits independently.