Armando Del Manso of East Barron, Queensland, Australia has discovered that a pair of “killer rabbits” have been dispatching snakes on his property. He had found several dead snakes that showed signs of being bitten and thought his dogs had killed them. However, one night he was startled to see two wild rabbits attack a Brown Snake (a highly venomous Australian snake). He described the attack: “The snake was raised up in the air in the striking position and the two rabbits worked their way around him and killed him in two minutes.” He went on to exclaim: “These are killer rabbits, man. I’ve never ever seen or heard anything like this happening, it could be a breakthrough.”
The rabbits live in a woodpile on the property and had recently had young. Paul O’Callaghan, senior wildlife manager at the Cairns Wildlife Safari, said he’d never heard of rabbits attacking snakes before but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. He commented: “Animals are capable of learning, and it’s not impossible that these animals have learnt to deal with snakes in this way.” Del Manso keeps bantams (small hens) on his property and even though his property is “absolutely inundated with snakes” he has not lost one to snakes. It seems he has guard rabbits to protect them.
Editorial Comment: As Paul O’Callaghan commented, these rabbits are evidence that aggressive behaviour towards other animals is learned, and not some kind of “killer instinct”. We suspect the rabbits probably started killing snakes to protect their own young, rather than the property owner’s chickens. Many people, including some Christian creationists, believe some animals were designed to be predators and even use their killing efficiency as evidence for intelligent design. It’s similar to claiming Grandma’s knitting needles were designed as weapons when we all know the terrorists have used their pre-existing brain to come up with a way to use knitting needles as weapons.
The Bible tells us all animals started out as vegetarians. Therefore, no animal was designed to be a killer. However, the world degenerated after the Fall of Man and by Noah’s time the world was filled with violence (Genesis 6:6-7). After the flood God gave man permission to eat meat and we had to use our pre-existing brains to find out how to do this. By Job’s day shortly after Babel, the Bible records that some animals had also become predators as the environment degenerated and life became a struggle to survive. Those animals that were preyed on fought back to preserve their own existence and protect their young, and so began the downward spiral of “kill or be killed”. This is not how God designed the original good world and there will not be animal aggression in the New Heavens and Earth – a place where the lion can lay down with the lamb, and snakes don’t bite people either. (Isaiah 11:6-9, 65:17-25)
Evidence News 17 February 2010
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