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Success of South Georgia’s rat eradication campaign makes BBC news

Professor Tony Martin, the project's director from the University of Dundee: a race against time

The world's largest rat eradication campaign has now laid toxic bait on a further 580 sq km of South Georgia, reaching its target. These poisonous pellets have now been spread on 70% of the rat-infested island, according to a BBC report from Melissa Hogenboom.

First introduced on sealing and whaling ships in the late 18th Century, tens of thousands of invasive rats have long been a threat to local wildlife. The team is confident they will eradicate the rodents within two years.

South Georgia is famous for its rich wildlife but as sailors plundered the ocean for seals and whales, they unknowingly brought with them the common brown rat. The unwelcome visitors multiplied quickly as they bred and for over 200 years have feasted on the chicks and eggs of ground-nesting seabirds, which include ducks, diving petrels and prions.

Species like the South Georgia Pipit and the South Georgia Pintail are unique to the island and there is now a growing concern that many local birds are at danger of extinction.

The island is separated by several glaciers, so once rats have been eradicated from a region, they cannot repopulate it. But as the climate warms the island's natural glaciers are slowly melting. As this continues, there will no longer be a natural barrier preventing the rats from spreading.

Tony Martin, the project's director from the University of Dundee, described the mission as “a race against time”, as the melting glaciers could make the task of removing them nearly impossible.

“What's there today is but a shadow of what was there when Captain Cook discovered [the island] in 1775”.

He explained that species like the fabulous Wilson Storm Petrel, which were once present in the millions have all left the main island.

”There are still a few rodent-free islands around the coast from which the main island can be re-colonised. We are trying to allow the sea birds to reclaim their ancestral home.

“The ecosystem of South Georgia evolved in the absence of any terrestrial mammals, so when man came along... and introduced these furry rodents, they were completely naive. This is a man induced problem and it's about time that man put right earlier errors,” Prof Martin said.

“Team rat”, as they call themselves, embarked on the first phase of the eradication project in 2011, and successfully removed rats from a tenth of the island.

The team purposely left time between missions to observe if any survivors had managed to reproduce but, two years on, the area remains rat free.

For the latest mission the team spread nearly 200 tons of pellets using helicopters which enabled them to cover large areas very quickly. They dropped pellets in every area mice or rats occupied and areas which cannot be reached by helicopter were baited by hand: this included former whaling stations which are now industrial heritage sites.

Prof Martin explained that to be successful meant total eradication... Killing 99.9% would be a failure.

For this latest phase, for which the team had spent 21 months in preparation, they faced the harshest weather conditions experienced in a decade and were often unable to fly.

The project will need to raise a further £2m in order to bait the remaining area at the southern end of the island, which they aim to complete in 2015. Even when rat free, the wildlife is not expected to return immediately as to re-colonise the island could take decades if not centuries, said Prof Martin.

“Man managed to mess up South Georgia in the space of very few years but it's going to take centuries before it gets back to where it was.”

Though challenges remain - not least to find the additional funding needed, Prof Martin said his team is confident they can win this race against time. (BBC)