Rabbit, deer and sea urchin among invasive species being cooked up creatively by hobbyist hunters

If pressed, amateur hunter Shauna Pickin can narrow down her preferred ways of cooking wild rabbit to just one.

"I absolutely love rabbit dumplings — they're so, so delicious," she said. 

"Whether I put them into a soup, so there's rabbit dumpling soup, or whether I just have them as deep fried Asian-style dumplings, they're absolutely beautiful."

Ms Pickin said cooking with wild food like rabbit was challenging, but once you knew how to do it properly, it was "wonderful and very rewarding".

"And knowing that I can [eat] a species that causes damage to the environment is a bonus."

Learning how to hunt

Rabbits are Australia's most destructive environmental and agricultural vertebrate pest.

Ms Pickin has been hunting wild rabbit for about 10 years, and fallow deer for about eight.

In Tasmania, fallow deer cause widespread ecological damage but are not classified as "pests".

She and her husband, Adrian, both from Hobart, began hunting soon after they visited a local butcher, where they noticed some rabbit meat for sale.

"We asked [the butcher] where he'd got it from and he said, 'Oh, it's wild rabbit from Victoria,'" she said.

"And we were like, 'What? Why is it from Victoria? There are wild rabbits everywhere around Tassie.'"

Not keen on eating frozen wild meat from interstate, Ms Pickin said she and Mr Pickin began thinking of hunting their own.

While the couple have now each long held gun licences, they most often catch rabbits using ferrets.

"At first we were really clumsy with [ferreting] and we didn't really know what we were doing," Ms Pickin said.

But over time the pair improved their methods, got more ferrets and a ferreting dog, and have now "perfected" their techniques.

Ms Pickin said when they first decided to see if others were interested in their services as rabbiters for pest control reasons, they put an ad on Gumtree.

"And we just got flooded with invitations [from] people having massive rabbit problems, wanting us to to take the rabbits."

Versatile meat

While it is illegal for the Pickins to sell the rabbit meat they harvest, Ms Pickin enjoys cooking creatively with it for family and friends.

The dishes she prepares are inspired by recipes from many different cultures.

Thai rabbit larb, Indian butter rabbit, Polish rabbit stew, Italian-style rabbit bolognaise and "bunny burgers" were just some of the dishes Ms Pickin listed as her go-tos.

Even more versatile is venison, which has a "really beautiful, complex flavour," Ms Pickin said.

"Because venison is a red meat, you can also use it to make a lot of charcuterie, and beautiful charcuterie as well."

She said while she knew many people were "not too interested" in eating rabbit meat, she thought it might become popular in future, just like lamb shanks.

Traditionally, lamb shanks were not considered a gourmet food, she said, but they had come to be seen that way now.

"There's definitely, I think, a growing popularity when it comes to … rabbit served in restaurants," Ms Pickin said.

"And I definitely believe if more people eat [rabbit] it's actually going to … reduce the numbers of rabbits."

Cooking sea urchin

Ryan Francis from Launceston is also a fan of cooking with meat from pest species he has harvested.

Deer, rabbit, hare and long-spined sea urchin are his favourites.

"I try to make use of every part of the animal and do something a bit different," he said.

When cooking with sea urchin roe, Mr Francis said he often looked to Sydney chef Josh Niland for inspiration.

"He's incredible … so I really enjoy opening his cookbooks to get ideas," Mr Francis said.

Sea urchin nigiri, a type of sushi made up of rice with roe arranged on top, is a dish Mr Francis is partial to, and which he thinks also wins points for presentation.

But preparing sea urchin need not be a fancy affair, Mr Francis explained.

"And there's heaps of people that are more than happy to just crack them open out at sea and eat them raw."

Eating invasives a 'win-win'

Mr Francis, who grew up on "a pretty big property" and these days owns a smaller farm, says hunting is "part and parcel" of farming life.

But for him, it is merely the means to an end.

"I don't go out hunting just to fill the freezer or anything," he said.

An ecologist by trade, Mr Francis said he considered reducing the populations of invasive species in Tasmania a top priority.

"And if I can make use of that resource while doing it, well it's a win win."

'A drop in the ocean'

One of these "wins" is, however, not as big as it is often thought to be, according to Tiana Pirtle from the Invasive Species Council.

"Many people think we can eat our way out of our invasive species problems … but that is simply not the case," Dr Pirtle said.

She said populations of rabbits and deer would keep growing unless more animals were killed than were born each year. 

"To see meaningful reductions of a population of fallow deer, about 35 per cent to 80 per cent of the deer need to be killed every year," she said.

"[And] for rabbits, more than 85 per cent of the population needs to be killed each year."

Dr Pirtle said in comparison to these numbers, the deer and rabbit harvested by hobby hunters represented "a drop in the ocean".

"Proper invasive species management requires targeted, coordinated, long-term programs."

Taste for 'pest meats' on the rise

For Ms Pickin, who prefers not to eat shop-bought meat due to concerns about what "meat production does to the environment", hunting provides a way to take responsibility for her own eating habits.

And for both Ms Pickin and Mr Francis, a large part of hunting is sharing their "catches" with others in the hunting community.

"That's a big part of how we live … there's quite a big group of us now that have catch-ups and big cook-ups, so we certainly share recipes and thoughts and ideas around that group a lot," Mr Francis said.

Mr Francis agrees with Ms Pickin that wild meats are not to everyone's taste, and says he doesn't understand why.

"I know the older community still only eats a couple of [different meats] and would say no to anything else.

"My father's a butcher by trade, and there's a lot of meats that he just wouldn't even think about eating, [and even] different cuts off of a steer that he wouldn't think about eating.

"[But] I think [public acceptance] is certainly improving. I think there's a sustainable mindset, certainly the recent generations are shifting that way.

"And now they're [getting] really quite popular, so … that's super cool."