500 dead in Hungarian motorway lapine bloodbath

Motorists travelling on the Hungarian M1 motorway between Budapest and Vienna have been diverted onto alternative routes after a high-speed crash claimed the lives of 500 rabbits, The Telegraph reports. The tragedy occurred when a lorry carrying thousands of rabbits in plastic crates overturned at high speed. The survivors of …

[Anonymous Coward]

A net gain?

By now the 4,000 escaped rabbits will have replaced the departed bunnies, in the natural way. But then again, if it was my job to transport thousands of rabbits by truck, I would ensure that the male and females rabbits were shipped separately. A mixed-sex rabbit cargo would be a recipe for disaster.

[Ralph B]

Hopping Mad

I expect they all hopped at the same time. Cunning wee furry beasties.

[Glynn Williams]

Only 500???

If only 500 were killed, and 4000 were recaptured... That means that we should have about 2000 new rabbits to replace them within... what 6 weeks?

Poor ickle bunny rabbits!

[Rob Holmes]

RE: A net gain?

<quote>By now the 4,000 escaped rabbits will have replaced the departed bunnies, in the natural way. But then again, if it was my job to transport thousands of rabbits by truck, I would ensure that the male and females rabbits were shipped separately. A mixed-sex rabbit cargo would be a recipe for disaster.</quote>

Im not so sure about that, I mean, if you ship them together, the lorry will start off lighter, thereby reducing use of fuel (reduce carbon footprint, save the planet, hug a tree, etc) and you have more rabbits for sale at the other end.

Making money every way up....

[Webster Phreaky]

This is a Hare raising tale that makes me Paws

The upside - FLASH! Bargain Prices for Lucky Rabbits Foots in Vienna comes from this unfortunate situation where bunnies caught in a Stew.

[Mike]

Roadkill goulash

Roadkill goulash, a nice bottle of Bull's Blood, yum!

[Arnold Lieberman]

Einstein will no doubt be spinning in his grave

"...if you ship them together, the lorry will start off lighter..."

Um, where is the extra mass going to appear from? Unless the little fluffy things have learned how to convert energy into mass, they'd be needing some carrots.

[Nicholas Wright]

You gotta be careful of bunny rabbits...

.. they have GREAT BIG POINTY TEEEEETH! *put fingers to mouth in shape of fangs*

[Anonymous Coward]

Oldest joke in the book?

"Of the 200 rabbits that went missing last week, only 1,300 have so far been recovered". I know it's an oldie ...

In fact it's up there with "a bomb exploded in the middle of Didcot yesterday, causing 27 million pounds of improvemements".

I'll get my coat.

Scott

[Matthew Veasey]

Why??

Has anyone considered why you would need to transport 5,000 rabbits along an arterial route in Hungary? Are they a popular pet? Or is this Bernard Mathews diversifying in case of more outbreaks of avian flu?

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: rapid rabbit ruckus

<sobbing> Oh the hare-manity!!!! </sobbing>

[David Rowe]

re Oldest Joke...

This is my fave...

A light aircraft crashed into a cemetary this morning. The police have recovered 500 bodies and fear there may be many more.

Now, that IS funny...

[Colin Sharples]

Breeding like rabbits...

I hate to be pedantic (well, no I don't), but the reproductive capacity of rabbits isn't nearly as impressive as most people think. A female rabbit in good condition can produce a litter of 4-10 kittens every 30 days. In optimal conditions, they can do this for 8-9 months of the year, so potentially one female could produce close to a hundred offspring in one year. Young females can produce their first litter at 4 or 5 months, so it is possible for a female to produce grandchildren in one season.

In practice, the breeding rate is much lower than that (except in certain parts of Australia). The point that most people miss, though, is that 90% or more of rabbit offspring will never see their first birthday, due to predation and disease. The rate of population increase for rabbits is still pretty good for a mammal, but not nearly as explosive as people imagine.

So yes, the 4000 escaped rabbits may well be able to produce, say 10,000 offspring in a few weeks, but most of those will be dead by the end of the year anyway...

[Paul Hurst]

RE: Breeding like rabbits...

Colin, there's no need to split 'hares'!

[Grae Stafford]

Hare today and gone tomorrow

<quote>...due to predation and disease.</quote>

and obviously hispeed crashes in transit.

The jokes are dire. Go back to he classics.

A man walks into a bar.......Ouch.

*/ looks shamefully at feet and shuffles off.

[Robin]

RE: Breeding like Rabbits

"A female rabbit in good condition can produce a litter of 4-10 kittens every 30 days."

Kittens? Good grief, what kind of sick laboratory experiments do you conduct?? You should be ashamed.