Rat Island No More

By Corey • August 25, 2009 • 3 comments

Rat Island, part of the Aleutians in Alaska, had been infested with rats since a Japanese ship wrecked there in the 1700s. It is now rat free after a mass poisoning campaign proved successful. The project did have a few glitches, however, including the death of 43 Bald Eagles. The sacrifice seems well worth it if seabirds start breeding on the island in numbers like they do on other, nearby, rat-free islands.

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About the Author

Corey

Corey is a New Yorker who has lived most of his life upstate but has spent the last three years in Queens. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their two indoor cats, Hunter and B.B.

3 Responses to “Rat Island No More”

Robert Mortensen Aug 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
In a related story…
While environmentalists worldwide view the riddance of rats from the Aleutians as an enormous success, members of AREA (American Rat Enthusiast Association) are devasted.
Wes Aug 26th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Wondering how long the poison maintains potency (even after being ingested by the rats), or what was left laying around.
Jochen Aug 26th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Wes, if the poison used is 1080 or something comparable, it will dissolve rather quickly both within the rat remains and if it is laying around outside.

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Asides

A team of researchers has found that the populations of common birds around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has plummeted. Most disturbingly, the populations of species that the area has in common with Chernobyl has fallen more in Fukushima than they did in the site of worst nuclear disaster in world history.