Ready to destroy Rat Island rats

2008/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ekologia

In the chain of Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska, a small island is full of rats. This particular feature gives you name: Rat Island. The U.S. government is preparing a plan to destroy the rats of this island, which have provoked a terrible slaughter on the island and surrounding areas.

In the 1780s the rats landed on a Japanese boat and have since taken over the island. Not only that, but most seabirds on this island have been killed, as they feed on their eggs, chickens or adult specimens, and have passed to other nearby islands as they are excellent swimmers.

The plan that the US government will implement has two main objectives: one, to end the rats of these islands and another, to raise awareness among sailors who travel the area that they must kill the rats they find on board. To carry out the first of the objectives, it is intended to provide the rats with an anticoagulant poison and, secondly, leaflets will be distributed among the sailors with specific instructions: kill all the rats they see on the boat, store food and waste in containers that do not reach the rats, do not throw live rats into the water, etc.