Apr

27

2007
 
 

Rodent swapsies



Success in eradicating rats from Buck Island has allowed mice to gain a pawhold

nobody loves me, everybody hates me...A report published this week in Wildlife Research describes the eradication of roof rats Rattus rattus from Buck Island, a tiny jewel in the Caribbean Sea. The systematic eradication program used diphacinone-based anticoagulent bait in specially designed traps. This allowed the team of scientists, led by Gary Witmer at the USDA National Wildlife Research Center, to target just the rats whilst ensuring that the island’s endemic species – such as pearly-eyed thrashers Margarops fuscatus – suffered minimal danger. With the rats gone, the island’s hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata population is recovering and there are plans to reintroduce the endangered St Croix ground lizard Ameiva polops. The only cloud on the horizon is the unexpected resurgence of the mouse Mus musculus population, which has boomed in the absence of their larger rodent cousins. And given what mice can do to seabirds, who says they won’t have a go at turtles too? Source: Witmer GW, Boyd F & Hillis-Starr Z (2007) The successful eradication of introduced roof rats (Rattus rattus) from Buck Island using diphacinone, followed by an irruption of house mice (Mus musculus). Wildlife Research DOI: 10.1071/WR06006

Related story in Conservation magazine: The Conundrum of Biological Control: Weighing Urgency Against Uncertainty

Image © Aleksandr Lukin

Filed Under Endangered species, Invasive species, Restoration, Monitoring, Tools and technology | 

Email This Post Email This Post

Comments

Leave a Reply