Lowe, Wheeler & Twigg: Impact of rabbits 
the cost of the fence, to prevent the deleterious effects 
caused by residual rabbits. Such a situation may well be 
little better (or possibly worse) than employing a regular 
poisoning program, without the fence, to reduce the 
impacts of rabbits. 
One potential negative impact of using rabbit-proof 
fencing to protect bush remnants is that it may interfere 
with the movement of native animals, particularly 
kangaroos and wallabies. The conservation issues 
potentially associated with this may be important if 
species of high conservation value, or species that are 
under threat, are involved. How important this is may 
need to be balanced against the losses inflicted to crops 
and pasture, the potential loss of native vegetation, and 
the conservation value of the vegetation of concern. Such 
issues will need to be considered carefully on a case by 
case basis. 
Acknowledgements: We are very grateful to Don, Val and Wayne 
Tomlinson, and Rex and Tracy Parsons for their kind cooperation and 
support in allowing us to use their properties for this trial work, and for 
their on-going encouragement. Sandra Gilfillan (CALM) offered valuable 
insight into techniques for vegetation assessments, and Jane Speijers 
(DAWA) provided valuable help with ANOVA. We are also grateful for 
the financial support provided by the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS). 
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