The team spearheading an operation to rid Marion Island of mice which are annihilating seabirds and other life say the project's success is vital for conservation.
- Marion Island is home to millions of seabirds from 28 species.
- Mice are putting 19 species at risk of extinction.
- Mice are now attacking adult Wandering Albatrosses, imperilling the bird's survival on Marion.
- Six hundred tonnes of poison bait is to be distributed across the island.
- The funding target to launch the operation is $25-million.
A "zombie apocalypse" has been playing itself out on Marion Island in the Southern Indian Ocean for more than a decade, as flesh-eating mice massacre vulnerable seabirds, having already laid waste to invertebrates and otherwise tenacious vegetation.
The urgency to do something about it has been growing, but the process of conducting feasibility studies on island rodent eradication, meeting regulations and trying to raise the funds for a massive extermination operation has been a slow one.
Mark D Anderson, the CEO of BirdLife South Africa - which has been spearheading the Mouse-Free Marion rodent eradication project in conjunction with the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment - is adamant, however, that a terminal blitz on the rodents will take place soon.
The high stakes justify the painstaking progress, because, says Anderson, "the outcome is binary: either we succeed or we fail. A pregnant mouse remaining is...
