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CAPE TOWN - Robben Island, the windswept site where Nelson Mandela spent so many years in jail, has been home to thousands of lepers and political prisoners. But now it's struggling to cope with its latest inhabitants - rabbits.
South Africa's iconic tourist attraction will be closed for the first two weeks in November so authorities can hold a "humane culling program" in a desperate battle against the bunnies.
The number of rabbits on Robben Island is unknown, but there are so many they threaten to permanently damage the island's sensitive vegetation and starve themselves and all other animals, said Robben Island Museum interim chief executive Seelan Naidoo.
"Immediate action will be taken to avert an ecological crisis on the island."
The Society for the Protection of Animals said in the absence of a feasible alternative, it would reluctantly monitor the operation.
State veterinarians, environmentalists and volunteers will coax the rabbits into cages and give them lethal injections.
Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison there. Robben Island became a national monument and museum in 1997 and the United Nations declared it as a world heritage site in 1999.
It is also a biological treasure trove, hosting about 132 bird species, including the protected black oyster catcher and about 7000 breeding pairs of African penguins.
In 2006, museum authorities killed nearly 100 wild cats on the island, saying they were an alien species that violated UN heritage rules. That made the rabbit population explode.AP
