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Rat Cunning May Allow For Island Colonization
weighn writes "It was assumed that most rat invasions begin with one or two rats coming ashore from ships. The journal Nature reports that a wild rat, captured and then released on a deserted New Zealand island as part of an experiment, amazed scientists by apparently swimming 400 metres through treacherous open water to reach another island." From the article: "Researchers wanted to know how hard it would be to spot a single invader, and how difficult it would be to capture. Razza had a small radio transmitter attached and was set free on the island. Scientists intended to recapture him within eight weeks, but Razza gave a new meaning to 'rat cunning'. He avoided all the scientists' traps, and after 10 weeks his radio signal failed. 'It would be fair to say that at that point we were worried,' Professor Clout said. The Conservation Department was also worried, as the island had been cleared of rats."
The problem isn't that this one particular rat can self-fertilize, but that this means that rats can jump from island to island, specifically, to happy-special-rat-free island from evil-nasty-screwed-over-extinct-native-species-rat -filled island.
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
'A trap on Otata finally ended Razza's four months of freedom, and his life.'
Well no, actually they knew where the rat was (until it's radio transmitter went dead). They were trying to catch it using traps but had no luck. A rat is not the same thing as a blue whale or an elephant.
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It was only sleeping.
qz