S. Africa To Bomb ‘Mice Island’ To Protect Waterfowl

News Desk

Cape Town: South Africa has revealed a plan to bomb Marion Island with pesticide-filled pellets to get rid of invasive rats that have been feeding on the island’s albatross population, which is a critical step in protecting endangered waterfowl.

A Bird Conservation Organisation report reveals that these rats have increasingly attacked albatrosses and other seabirds nesting on Marion Island, which is situated approximately 2,000 km from Cape Town.

Organisation head Mark Anderson highlighted that the island hosts 19 out of 29 seabird species, many of which are now threatened with local extinction due to the rodent infestation.

“The albatrosses, renowned for their rarity, are especially vulnerable because they lack natural defences against land-based predators like rats,” Anderson explained.

The mice are proliferating because warmer temperatures due to climate change means they are breeding more frequently over a longer period, Anderson said. After eating through plants and invertebrates, the mice turned to the birds.

To combat this growing threat, authorities plan to carry out the bombardment during the winter. Mark pointed out that winter is optimal for this operation as the rats are hungrier and more likely to consume the bait, while the waterfowl are either migrating or less active during this period.

This initiative emphasises the critical need to protect Marion Island’s unique bird species from extinction and maintain the fragile ecosystem of this remote island.

House mice were introduced to the island in the early 1800s. Five cats were brought in around 1948 to control their numbers. But the cat numbers grew to about 2,000 and they were killing about 450,000 birds a year. An eradication project removed the last cat in 1991.