Rat catching team leave Canna after successful winter

30/10/2006 00:00:00 A team of rat-catchers, who have spent the last six months on the Hebridean island of Canna, owned by The National Trust for Scotland, are returning to their homeland of New Zealand. The team have completed Phase 1 of the Canna Seabird Restoration Project, which aims to eradicate a population of around 10,000 brown rats that have almost destroyed Canna’s seabird colonies.

Latest news. Sea birds returning to Canna.

Elizabeth Bell, Project Manager, said: ‘We are very happy with the progress we have made. Our recent monitoring of the island has shown no sign of rats but the situation will be monitored carefully over the summer and next winter, as we cannot yet be absolutely sure there are no rats left. If the monitoring over the next year discovers that even one rat is present, we will take action.’

The Canna project was launched in September 2005 by The National Trust for Scotland after seabird monitoring had shown that rat predation was to blame for the dramatic decline of bird species such as the Manx shearwater, European shags, razorbills and guillemots. The Manx shearwater population on Canna had declined from 1500 pairs in the 1970s to just one or two in 2000. Richard Luxmoore, Head of Nature Conservation at The National Trust for Scotland, said: ‘It is vitally important that we make sure there are no rats left on Canna if we are to regenerate the island’s internationally important seabird colonies. We will be monitoring the seabird colonies closely this summer and hope to see an improvement in their populations now that the rats appear to have gone.’

Before the rat eradication could begin, a team from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, removed a population of Canna wood mice to protect them from the poison being used to target the rats. The mice are now safe at Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park and will help to repopulate the island once it is known that no more poisoning is needed. How do you get rid of 10,000 rats?

New Zealand are world leaders in pest clearance from large areas. So much native wildlife in New Zealand is threatened (and has been destroyed) by introduced pests, that several areas have been fenced off and all the pests within have been exterminated. This allows the native flora and fauna to regenerate, and these areas have become havens for endangered species.

To see more details on one of these protected areas, click here.