{"id":2186397,"date":"2025-04-11T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2186397"},"modified":"2025-04-05T08:13:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:13:29","slug":"they-started-nibbling-at-its-head-the-bold-plan-to-rid-an-island-of-albatross-eating-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/they-started-nibbling-at-its-head-the-bold-plan-to-rid-an-island-of-albatross-eating-mice\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They started nibbling at its head\u2019: the bold plan to rid an island of albatross-eating mice"},"content":{"rendered":"
By 2015, scientists knew from camera trap evidence that mice were attacking albatross chicks on Marion Island, but no one had ever witnessed it first-hand on the small volcanic outcrop off the coast of South Africa. So, when researchers Stefan and Janine Schoombie came across a badly wounded wandering albatross chick in a relatively accessible part of the island, they resolved to return at night. After hiking for 30 minutes in the dark, Stefan started quietly setting up his camera equipment behind a rock. \u201cWe were expecting to have to stalk, but the mice were climbing all over us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for the mice to start feeding on the albatross chick. \u201cThe bird was a complete fluffball,\u201d says Janine. \u201cSo, they just climbed up its back and started nibbling at its head. We could see their teeth going into its flesh.\u201d The bird, too young to walk let alone fly, could only shake its head in irritation. \u201cAs scientists our job is to not intervene,\u201d says Stefan. \u201cBut we really wanted to help that bird.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning, they returned to the site to find that the chick had been joined by one of its parents \u2013 but the adult bird could also do nothing. \u201cIt was such a hopeless situation,\u201d says Janine. A few days later, the chick succumbed to its injuries and was eaten by giant petrels.<\/p>\n
Now, however, help is at hand for the seabirds of Marion Island, 1,180 miles (1,900km) south-east of Cape Town. Next month, scientists from the Mouse-Free Marion Project (MFM) \u2013 a partnership between BirdLife South Africa and the South African government \u2013 will be taking a crucial step towards eradicating the mice from the island by spreading toxic baits on foot, across a relatively small section of the island.<\/p>\nMarion Island is a key breeding site for grey-headed (pictured), sooty and light-mantled albatrosses Photograph: Ben Dilley\/MFM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
This time next year a helicopter will be used to drop bait across a much larger swathe of Marion. Assuming the project achieves its funding targets, these tests will culminate in the winter of 2028 when five or six helicopters (brought to the island by ship) will distribute poisoned bait across the entire island, in an attempt to eliminate the pests that were unintentionally introduced to the island by 19th-century sailors. If successful, it will be the largest ever eradication of mice in a single operation.<\/p>\n
The efforts to start improving the fortunes of the island\u2019s birds could not have come at a better time. Last week, the South African goverment announced that bird flu had been confirmed as present on the island for the first time. It has been found in six different bird species, with wandering albatross chicks dying in the greatest numbers (150 out of approximately 1,900 chicks) last year.<\/p>\n
Marion Island and neighbouring Prince Edward Island \u2013 which, fortunately, is mouse free \u2013 are the breeding ground for 50% of the world\u2019s wandering albatrosses. But this is by no means the only species whose survival is threatened by the mice: 19 of the 29 bird species that nest on Marion Island face local extinction by the rodents. Of these, Marion is considered globally important for grey-headed, sooty and light-mantled albatrosses.<\/p>\n
The pressure is huge. You only have to miss two mice out of however many million and you\u2019re back where you started \nKeith Springer, Mouse-Free Marion Project<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The decision to eradicate the mice was not taken lightly, says MFM project manager Anton Wolfaardt: \u201cI\u2019m a biologist,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t like killing things.\u201d Eradication was first discussed seriously more than a decade ago, with a feasibility study in 2015 finding that getting rid of the mice was technically possible. An ethics assessment conducted in 2022 showed that doing nothing and leaving the mice to destroy the island\u2019s ecosystem was not an ethically neutral action. \u201cIt\u2019s a necessary step,\u201d says Wolfaardt, \u201cto right the human-inflicted wrongs of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
These wrongs include the introduction of five unneutered cats to the island in 1949. The cats were meant to control mice around the research base but, says Wolfaardt, \u201cthey quickly discovered that the island\u2019s naive seabirds made far easier targets\u201d. By the mid-1970s, there was a feral cat population of about 2,000 killing an estimated 450,000 seabirds every year.<\/p>\nA mouse attacks a wandering albatross chick. Photograph: Stefan and Janine Schoombie\/MFM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
After a sustained campaign, the cats were eliminated in 1991. \u201cRemoving the mice is the last piece of the puzzle,\u201d says Wolfaardt, who explains that the problem has got worse in the past 30 years as warmer temperatures and drier conditions have caused the mouse population to increase.<\/p>\n
For inspiration and expertise, Wolfaardt and his team have looked to New Zealand, the global leaders in pest eradication. Because New Zealand has few native mammals, the introduction of rats, mice, stoats and cats have wreaked havoc among local species. Starting in the 1960s, the New Zealand government began clearing tiny islands of pests to give native bird species safe havens on which to breed.<\/p>\n
As the New Zealanders honed their skills, they embarked on more ambitious projects, clearing more than 300 islands of pests. The development of GPS and helicopter baiting buckets in the 1990s enabled them to tackle much larger islands.<\/p>\n
Keith Springer, MFM\u2019s operations manager, is a New Zealander who has worked on the largest eradication of mice (on Macquarie Island) and rats (on South Georgia, which is about 12 times bigger than Marion) among many other projects. With three years to go until rollout, the project is already a full-time job. \u201cThe pressure is huge,\u201d he says. \u201cYou only have to miss two mice out of however many million and you\u2019re back where you started.\u201d Almost 20 years ago, when the mouse population was thought to be smaller on the island, the number of mice was recorded as about 300 a hectare (10,000 sq meters) at the height of breeding season.<\/p>\nEradicating mice from the island would bring huge gains for wildlife. Photograph: Ben Dilley\/MFM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The island-wide baiting operation was initially meant to begin this year, but funding challenges and two recent unsuccessful mouse eradication projects, on Gough Island by the RSPB and on Midway Atoll by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, have forced a belt-and-braces approach.<\/p>\n
Springer knows from experience that it\u2019s all about controlling the controllables \u2013 people, equipment, plans \u2013 and hoping for decent weather in the winter of 2028. \u201cYou can have years where it\u2019s more challenging to fly helicopters,\u201d he says. \u201cBut with this kind of complex operation you\u2019re nominating your timeline years in advance. You can\u2019t change plans at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolfaardt and Springer know that if they don\u2019t succeed it will be decades before they can try again. But they also know that most eradication projects over the past 15 years have been successful \u2013 and that few have been as carefully planned as MFM.<\/p>\n
Wolfaardt says it\u2019s the prospect of success \u2013 rather than the fear of failure \u2013 that drives him. \u201cConservation rarely has silver bullets, but eradicating introduced species from islands is the closest we have to a silver bullet. I\u2019ve been working in conservation for 30 years. This is the only situation I\u2019ve encountered where we can actually turn back the clock. And if we are successful, we can say with 100% certainty that there will be massive conservation gains.\u201d<\/p>\n