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Bunnies versus the Board of Tourism and it sounds like the bunnies were (until recently) winning. Someone needs to sign out one of von Lettow-Vorbeck's Maxims from the War Museum in Jo'berg. ROBBEN ISLAND, South Africa — This dollop of land, just 1 mile wide and 2 miles long, is where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. Now venerated as a World Heritage Site, it is one of South Africa’s biggest tourist attractions, with 1,200 or so people each day boarding ferries in Cape Town that in 45 minutes carry them back into history. * In fact, this island is overrun with rabbits, multiplying at the astonishing rates for which they are renowned. They have burrowed beneath the historic buildings and denuded the place of the leafy plants that keep the soil from whooshing into a dust bowl. For the island’s managers, the rabbits long ago ceased being furry innocents and are viewed instead as maddening varmints. Various efforts have been made to control the population but every idea failed in one way or another. Now a distinctly straightforward approach has begun to succeed: marksmen go out at night and shoot ’em. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/world/africa/01safrica.html?ref=world |