MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South Georgia ready to launch the world’s biggest rodent eradication campaign

Falklands Fisheries Protection Vessel “Pharos SG” is bringing the bait

The world’s biggest ever attempted rodent eradication campaign to be launched in South Georgia is only a few weeks away according to the South Georgia Heritage Trust's (SGHT) Habitat Restoration Project and reported in the January edition of the South Georgia newsletter.

Project director Professor Tony Martin and other team members will soon embark on their sea journey to the island. Other team members are expected to arrive on the cruise ship “Marina Svetaeva” along with the two specially purchased helicopters. The Falklands Fisheries Protection Vessel “Pharos SG” is bringing the bait and other members.

Early tasks once the team is in South Georgia will be: installing communications equipment; and carrying out test flights in the helicopters; trialling of equipment; and calibrating bait buckets. Once the main team is in place a Search and Rescue exercise will be conducted, and initial monitoring activities will take place including the radio tracking of South Georgia pintail ducks.

Meanwhile snap traps, housed in wooden boxes to prevent incidental capture of birds, have been deployed by GSGSSI staff at Grytviken, Maiviken and the Greene Peninsula to catch rats for genetic analyses. If rats are found in cleared areas in the future it will be important to know if the eradication failed or if there was a new introduction.

Any potential unnatural food sources for rodents are being rat proofed or removed including emergency food stored in caves and huts in the area where the first rodent eradication attempts are to be made.