Experts deploy helicopters carrying over 500 tons of poison to eradicate dangerous island threat: 'A roll of the dice'
The damage they've done to local seabird populations has grown so extreme that officials are looking to eradicate all of the mice in one fell swoop using an innovative method — rodenticide-laced pellets.
Mice first arrived on the island two centuries ago, via sealing vessels, and they've been relatively minor pests for much of their time there.
However, Earth.com reported that a number of factors — namely, warmer temperatures that extend their breeding cycles — have created the perfect storm for an enormous mouse population. That population is, of course, hungry. The mice seek food in the form of bird eggs and even the birds themselves.
Now, grisly sights can be found around the island, as mice gnaw for hours at a time on nesting albatross. The birds, who never evolved a defense mechanism against land predators, simply sit in place until they bleed out or succumb to infection.
"These mice, for the first time last year, were found to be feeding on adult Wandering Albatrosses," said Mark Anderson, CEO of nonprofit BirdLife South Africa, per Earth.com. "Mice just climb onto them and slowly eat them until they succumb."
According to Earth.com, warmer waters have also driven fish deeper and farther south, meaning adult birds need to travel further for food and return to their nests more exhausted, unable to endure the attacks. Additionally, climate-intensified storms have been wiping away nests with extreme weather.
"Combined with the mouse attacks, these pressures make every breeding season a roll of the dice," Earth.com explained.
Marion is home to approximately 25% of the world's wandering albatross and 29 seabird species overall. However, given the severe threat posed by the mice, 19 of those species are now facing local extinction.
This poses a significant risk to the entire marine ecosystem of Marion and beyond. According to a study published in the Ecological Society of America, seabirds play an integral role in their food webs, enriching plant and coral health through their roles as both predators and prey.
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Their guano, or dung, fertilizes the oceans with nitrogen and phosphorus, boosting plankton and fish populations. Without these stocks, the entire food web would suffer.
Generally, any time that an invasive species wipes out a native plant or animal species, it risks throwing the entire ecosystem off balance. This jeopardizes the natural functions of that environment, including air and water filtration, food production, carbon sequestration, and disease control. It can also cost billions, or even trillions, of dollars to local economies.
To address the issue, an initiative called the Mouse-Free Marion Project is looking to wipe out the island's mice all at once, leaving no chance for the species' recovery. The plan? Using helicopters to distribute 600 tons of rodenticide-laced cereal pellets.
It may sound drastic, but conservationists argue that drastic is now the only possible approach.
"We have to get rid of every last mouse," Anderson explained to Earth.com. "If there were a male and female remaining, they could breed and eventually get back to where we are now."
Currently, the program is fundraising, as it comes with a hefty $29 million price tag, and hopes to deploy its "bombs" in 2027.
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