Conservationists are hoping invasive mice threatening the ecology of a South African island will take the bait.
A mass extermination is in the works to wipe out the ravenous rodents, which have been breeding nonstop and preying on adult seabirds and their chicks on Marion Island, one of the two Prince Edward Islands about 1,200 miles southeast of Cape Town set aside as a nature reserve.
Mice were accidentally brought to the uninhabited territory in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica 200 years ago, likely on the ships of seal hunters who landed there.
A large-scale conservation plan to spread rodent poison on the South African territory of Marion Island is being launched to restore once-undisturbed natural habitat.AP
As global temperatures have risen, the nature reserve has become more hospitable to the ruinous critters. Fewer get killed off in the winter and in the past few decades, they have grown increasingly destructive, according to Dr. Anton Wolfaardt, head of the Mouse-Free Marion project.
Up to 550 tons of rodenticide bait will be dropped on Marion Island, Woldaardt said, but $25 million needs to be raised first before the plan, slated for 2027, can go forward.
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