Lamping rabbits with hawks in Sussex 

Our falconry expert Roy Lupton takes his hawks and his John Deere Gator out to catch rabbits at night. Watch incredible footage of eagles catching - and missing - rabbits as Roy lights them up with a powerful lamp. This film first appeared in Fieldsports Britain, episode 16. To watch the whole show go to Fcha.nl/fieldsp...
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Why hunt rabbits?
Rabbits are a major agricultural pest, costing the British economy an estimated £100million a year*. More than half of this figure is accounted for by damage to agricultural crops, with winter wheat, barley and oats being the most vulnerable. In terms of annual yield, a loss of 1% per rabbit per hectare (2.5 acres) has been recorded but overall yields can be reduced by up to 20%. Rabbits also graze on pasture, impacting on newly sewn areas, reducing available grass for livestock and the yield of crops cut for silage.
Wild rabbits burrow under roads, railways and through archaeological sites, causing subsidence and other damage to buildings.
They also contaminate the soil with their urine and droppings, so nothing but weeds can survive. In addition, rabbits chew through the bark of trees, killing nursery stock or young saplings and preventing the natural regeneration of woodland.
A Government survey in 1995 put the UK rabbit population at 37.5 million. This number is thought to have dramatically increased. Farmers and landowners now have a statutory responsibility to manage rabbit populations on their land, to prevent them causing damage to neighbouring properties.
*(Natural England 2007)