Some Otago residents have resorted to extreme measures to try and cope with a pest.
Rabbits are decimating native flora, impacting habitats, and causing a major headache - so some locals are forced to shoot them as a necessity.
Dunedin resident Moira Parker has spent the last 20 years regenerating native plants on her property, but many have been chewed by rabbits.
"Our aim is that the bush continues to regenerate for the next 100, 200 years but the rabbits are having a big impact on that at the moment," Parker says.
Rabbit netting goes only so far, so the Parkers have resorted to shooting and using a heat scope to help hunt the rabbits out.
"John shoots, I would say every day, sometimes twice a day."
The rabbits know they're not welcome and many of them managed to dodge Newshub's camera when we visited. But they are there and there are lots of them.
Mid last year, an investigation by Newsroom painted a picture of the continuing rabbit plague across the South Island.
"They attack the habitat that our birds and lizards need. We've got heaps of cool community groups that are trying to plant more trees and the rabbits are just hammering them," says Marcia Dale from the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group.
But there's no funding to help with eradication.
"Ever since they shut off the rabbit boards in the 1970s, it's been on the landowners and the farmers. All know that but with new ownerships with lifestyle properties, some of that messaging may not have gotten through and we really need everyone to work together."
To ease the headache of residents and allow the flora to develop into a forest.
