Island Rodent Free
After a 125-year infestation, mice have been eradicated from an extremely remote sub-Antarctic outcropping known as Antipodes Island.
The rodents were accidentally introduced in 1893 from a shipwreck or by seal hunters, and they have since ravaged the island’s unique land birds, causing local extinctions.
But New Zealand’s “Million Dollar Mouse” project, launched in 2014, has exterminated the more than 200,000 mice that plagued the 8-square-mile island, located 470 miles southeast of New Zealand.
The island’s unique parakeets, pipits, snipe and insects can now thrive on the predator-free island, said New Zealand conservation minister Eugenie Sage.
No comments:
Post a Comment