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Large Island Declared Rat-Free in Biggest Removal Success (nationalgeographic.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: A remote, freezing, salt-spray lashed paradise for wildlife has been completely cleared of rats in the largest rodent eradication of all time, the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT) announced this week. Rats are smart, adaptable, and hungry. For all these reasons, they can be incredibly voracious predators when people accidentally introduce them to remote islands, where the local animals lack evolved defenses to rodents. They have flourished even on an island as harsh and cold as South Georgia, which is so far south that it hosts penguins, elephant seals, and fur seals, as well as massive permanent glaciers.
"There are no trees, there are no bushes. All nest on the ground or underground in burrows," says Mike Richardson, Chairman of the SGHT Habitat Restoration Project Steering Committee. Such nests are easy pickings for rats. The rats -- brought to the island by whalers and sealers as early as the late 18th century -- ate the eggs and vulnerable chicks of seabirds, including albatrosses, skua, terns, and petrels. They also threatened two birds with extinction that are found nowhere else in the world: the South Georgia Pipit -- a tiny speckled songbird -- and the South Georgia Pintail, a brown duck.
The rat eradication was a massive, arduous undertaking, costing more than $13 million and taking nearly a decade. More than 300 metric tons of poison bait was dropped on the island by helicopter in three separate trips during the Austral Summers of 2010-2011, 2012-2013, and 2014-2015. Poisoned rats tend to head underground to die, Richardson says, limiting the damage caused to birds like gulls that might have otherwise eaten the poison-tainted carcasses.
"There are no trees, there are no bushes. All nest on the ground or underground in burrows," says Mike Richardson, Chairman of the SGHT Habitat Restoration Project Steering Committee. Such nests are easy pickings for rats. The rats -- brought to the island by whalers and sealers as early as the late 18th century -- ate the eggs and vulnerable chicks of seabirds, including albatrosses, skua, terns, and petrels. They also threatened two birds with extinction that are found nowhere else in the world: the South Georgia Pipit -- a tiny speckled songbird -- and the South Georgia Pintail, a brown duck.
The rat eradication was a massive, arduous undertaking, costing more than $13 million and taking nearly a decade. More than 300 metric tons of poison bait was dropped on the island by helicopter in three separate trips during the Austral Summers of 2010-2011, 2012-2013, and 2014-2015. Poisoned rats tend to head underground to die, Richardson says, limiting the damage caused to birds like gulls that might have otherwise eaten the poison-tainted carcasses.
A volcano will do that!
Can you do the Whitehouse next?
...
It had to be rats...
The introduction of touch screens, tablets, and smart pens has greatly reduced their ecosystem. Should mice be considered at danger of extinction ?
We introduced an invasive species and then destroyed them again at some cost to the environment. I hope it's clear that the villain in this story was not the rats.
The most common rat poison is warfarin which is also used in humans as a blood thinner to prevent blood clots. Iâ(TM)m not saying there are no unknown negatives but rat poison is relatively safe at low doses and pretty well understood.
300 tons of bait, the actual amount of poison is much lower
Also remember that the rat poison will not last forever, it slowly degrades...
Higuita
You can find all the relevant documents here.
From the environmental impact study of Phase I:
A bait drop of the second generation anticoagulant toxin brodifacoum in cereal-based pellets will be distributed by helicopters using under-slung spreader buckets. This will be supplemented with hand spreading of baits in and around buildings and other areas inaccessible by air. Much of the interior of the island and the south coast will be unaffected by the baiting operations.
A little further in that document:
The baiting operation is likely to have negligible effects also on soil, water and vegetation as the toxin is not soluble and will break down to harmless products over a period of several months to a year. Similarly, effects on the marine environment are likely to be negligible due to the small amount of bait entering the sea and rapid break up and dispersal of the bait.
The eradication of the two reindeer herds on South Georgia is currently under consideration by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which has responsibility for this issue. Secondary poisoning due to feeding on poisoned carcasses is most likely for brown skua, snowy sheathbill and northern and southern giant petrels. Such losses should be sustainable at the population level, and numbers are predicted to recover on a scale of years.
And from the final report, this paragraph is interesting:
Over 4,600 inert devices, including chewsticks and tracking tunnels, were deployed and checked as part of the survey. The very best rodent detection experts were also brought in especially: three highly trained 'sniffer' dogs and their two skilled female handlers. In an incredible feat of endurance and teamwork reminiscent of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic crossing of the island just over a hundred years ago, the handlers walked a total of 1608km, with the dogs covering a total of 2420km, searching for signs of rats. This distance, roughly the equivalent of a return trip from London to Dundee, is all the more impressive given the rugged and challenging terrain of South Georgia.
I've heard of them, but I've never actually seen one in real life, since I live in Alberta, a province free of rats.
Of course, we're not really a "removal success" since we kept them out in the first place.
I stole this Sig
Make lovefarin, not warfarin!
Ezekiel 23:20
Betty White is still alive!
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
naturally Rat Island is in the Bronx. How can you mock what people own up to right up front?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
In principle, stronger species replacing weaker ones is what evolution is about. Who are we to exterminate the species that succeeded? Even if we played some initial role in introducing them, it's their own fitness that got them to great numbers. Maybe intelligent successors of hardy rats will do archeological research on slashdot archives long after humans offed themselves of perished in a natural disaster. In the meantime, rat meat is eaten in a lot of cultures and rats can obviously be raised in great numbers without intense agricultural practices. If reduction in numbers is desired, opening these islands to commercial trapping/hunting seems less wasteful than dropping lots of poison.
Talk about trying to solve one problem and causing a domino effect of others.
It's better than their original plan of setting loose a bunch of snakes.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Just imagine how much rat cake, rat sorbet, rat pudding, or strawberry tart that could have made!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I've read this headline several times. My biggest question is, where is this taking place?
Southern Georgia
Southern Georgia
Apparently it's South Georgia. Which I thought I had never heard of, but my browser's search history tells me otherwise.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Let's eradicate the rats in the various capitals. We need lobbyists with poison checks, that should be the right bait.
What ever the rats were eating may now end up with a massive increase in population..
Well... yeah. That was the entire point of the project.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
The summary and a nice excerpt from linked articles by Okian Warrior above pretty well says that the rats were so voraciously feeding on the eggs of indigenous birds that they were driving them to the edge of extinction. I sure hope that there are indeed knock on effects, like rebound of the affected species!
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
They had lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Well, it depends on the poison, doesn't it?
In this case the pesticide used was brodifacoum -- a chemical analog of the anticoagulant warfarin. The reason brodifacoum is used in this application is that it is a large molecule that breaks down rapidly in the environment -- residue is undetectable after 100 days. The rapid breakdown in soil meaans that there is low potential for bioaccumulation or tolerance development. On the other hand repeated treatments are necessary.
This is why the eradication was so expensive. Had they tried this 100 years ago they'd have used thallium sulfate. Since pretty much all thallium compounds are toxic, fewer retreatments are needed, making thallium cost effective, if you don't count the side effects.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It's not really a poison per se.
It works by making the rats unable to clot blood, meaning if they start bleeding, they die from loss of blood. But there's more, the "bait" contains both the anticoagulant AND some normal food, usually grain with lots of fiber, designed to have lots of sharp edges. The rat eats this mixture, the grain causes internal bleeding and the anticoagulant makes it impossible for the bleeding to stop.
Neither of the components of the poison are immediately dangerous to people and should you actually ingest it, it's easily treated.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
And from the final report, this paragraph is interesting:
Over 4,600 inert devices, including chewsticks and tracking tunnels, were deployed and checked as part of the survey. The very best rodent detection experts were also brought in especially: three highly trained 'sniffer' dogs and their two skilled female handlers. In an incredible feat of endurance and teamwork reminiscent of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic crossing of the island just over a hundred years ago, the handlers walked a total of 1608km, with the dogs covering a total of 2420km, searching for signs of rats. This distance, roughly the equivalent of a return trip from London to Dundee, is all the more impressive given the rugged and challenging terrain of South Georgia.
Is it necessary for them to point out that the canine handlers were women?
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
We were down in South Georgia a couple of years ago and the locals were talking about the various eradication programs.
Some time ago, reindeer were introduced in an attempt to create some sort of farming/hunting but of course the reindeer denuded the local grasses to the detriment of indigenous creatures. Culling the reindeer is a sight easier than culling rats, just needs a couple of guys with rifles.
We actually saw the last of a small reindeer herd in one of the bays, peacefully grazing.
My first thought was they'd be back on the next boat in, but if the bait actually worked (rats are incredibly suspicious and I'd have figured them to strongly prefer eggs) and there's a lot left, there's nothing alive on the island that's adapted.
It would have been much easier and cheaper: (Skyfall Rat Scene) https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Hawaii is attempting a novel method for rat eradication right now. While effective against rats, it seems to also be eradicating homes. Collateral damage is always a risk...
Thanks for your reply. Its nice to see someone research their reply instead of just assuming the job was done without forthought.
outch that hurts :)
Have gnu, will travel.
They were eating seabirds, which are famous for fertilizing shorelines with their excreta. There may be a population explosion of seabirds, but since their feeding occurs out in a vast ocean, their increased presence will be a drop in the bucket.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
It would count as an extremely low dose if you're talking about whatever leeches into the ocean, like the post you're replying to is.
Or skilled?
I'm sick of all these adjectives being tossed around all willy-nilly.
Nouns and verbs only, please.
I hope so, they are just as bad.
Dick Clark died in 2012.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I've read the side-effects document for blood-thinners. It increases the changes of strokes, bleeds on the brain, blood blisters. These have to be weighed against the danger of death or stroke from a DVT.
Wouldn't it be easier to use ultrasound or a HF magnetic field to break up a blood clot?
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Indeed, there is a case of a woman eating 1.5 kg of brodifacoum bait, and she survived. The treatment for brodifacoum poisoning is simply taking vitamin K. The poisoning effect is due to shutting down vitamin K synthesis, so simply taking vitamin K (which your body is not making) is a completely effective treatment.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
The sentence is ambiguous. Are the handlers female, or are there beings of some sort that handle females?
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Sorry. Still racist. You lose.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Well, of course males here at slashdot wouldn't be aware of beings that handle females.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
What ever the rats were eating may now end up with a massive increase in population
No shit sherlock, that was the entire point of the erradication, they were killing and eating the local wildlife population.
, and the excreta that the rats generated had to be fertilizing something, so at least one other species won't do as well, and there will be knock on effects from that.
Rats are not native to the environment on the island, hence a pest. Anything dependent on them can only also be a recent introduction so if it kills off other introduced species all the better. The island is mostly barrow with just ground shrub and I seriously doubt the Rats were providing any benefit that the birds couldn't.