Rabbits were introduced to Numa Island in the nineteenth century  Overgrazing by the enormous population of rabbits now menaces the island' s agriculture  The government proposes to reduce the population by using a virus that has caused devastating epidemics in rabbit populations elsewhere  There is, however, a chance that the virus will infect the bilby, an endangered native marsupial
The government' s plan, ttherefore, may serve the interests of agriculture but will clearly increase the threat to native wildlife
Overgrazing by rabbits endangers many of the plants on which bilbies feed.