The Frenchman Who Almost Devastated Europe's Ecosystem
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Chapter 1: The Unfortunate Encounter
I can't recall my exact age during that moment, but I vividly remember my shoes: shiny patent leather with velcro straps adorned with blue stars, paired with white socks. And there it lay in the grass, lifeless and sprawled beneath a swarm of maggots—a deceased rabbit. “Mummy?” I asked, gazing at its ghastly, swollen face, the once-bright eyes now marred by disease. “Why does that rabbit look so strange?”
The Rabbits' Downfall: An Ecological Catastrophe
She didn’t provide an answer then—perhaps she was unaware. However, if you reside in Europe, you've undoubtedly witnessed a rabbit suffering from myxomatosis. It is a truly malevolent disease, seemingly conjured by dark forces. This virus doesn't offer a gentle exit from life; it begins with swelling, fever, and the development of grotesque lesions. As vision fades, these rabbits become blind and gasping for breath, their lungs gradually succumbing. In their final moments, they lie cold and alone, waiting for death, hoping that a predator might deliver a quick end. They cannot escape.
You likely knew that much.
But you may not realize that this devastation wasn't a cruel twist of fate; rather, it was the doing of one man: Paul-Félix Armand-Delille.
Chapter 2: The Mad Scientist's Gambit
Paul Delille was a polarizing figure—depending on whom you spoke with, he was either a brilliant virologist or a dangerous fool. He viewed rabbits as pests invading his garden on his estate near Paris. Instead of employing a simple solution, like hiring someone to manage the problem, he opted for a diabolical scheme: he engineered a bioweapon that would annihilate all the rabbits in the area. With the cold detachment of a villain in a cartoon, he isolated a strain of the myxoma virus, deliberately infecting two rabbits and releasing them into his garden to spread the disease.
Within six weeks, an astonishing 98% of the rabbit population perished. The estate was littered with corpses, each afflicted by the horrific symptoms I’ve just described. The "ebola of bunnies" was unleashed across Europe.
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As the disease spread, it annihilated rabbits within a 50-mile radius, continuing its rampage into Germany, Italy, Britain, Spain, and even reaching Poland and Greece. Millions of rabbits faced extinction.
You might argue that this is just nature's way of culling pests—after all, they consume crops and reproduce rapidly. Initially, farmers welcomed the decline in rabbit populations. However, it soon became apparent how disastrous this was: the predators that depended on rabbits for sustenance began to die off in staggering numbers, and vegetation exploded unchecked. Insects thrived without competition, while birds of prey faced extinction, and lynx populations dwindled. The countryside was strewn with the remains of countless rabbits, leaving rural communities that relied on them for food in dire straits.
A chilling thought emerged among French, British, and Spanish officials: could this disease jump to humans?
In summary, Paul's actions were recklessly dangerous, posing a catastrophic risk to Europe’s ecosystem. Luckily, while the myxoma virus can infiltrate some human cells, it does not replicate within them, thus sparing us from a potential outbreak. We dodged a bullet, but the impact on Europe’s food chain and wildlife was severe. The absence of rabbits has persisted, and their numbers have never returned to pre-1950 levels.
While rabbit populations are slowly recovering, it serves as a reminder of the folly of those who play God with forces they fail to comprehend. With the rise of DIY culture, one can only hope that no misguided individual decides to experiment with dangerous pathogens.
Van De Velde's Collapse at Carnoustie | Priceless Open Moments - YouTube