MOUSE TRAP

Conservationists Plot Mass Extermination of Bird-Eating Mice

If they do nothing to stop the mice from breeding, 19 species of seabirds will vanish from the island within a century.

Conservationists are plotting to destroy the mice population on a remote Antarctic island, over concerns they have begun consuming the island’s seabirds which are several times their size, according to the Associated Press. As Marion Island has become warmer and drier due to climate change, the mice have been able to exponentially multiply, and now over 1 million are estimated to roam the grassy island. Conservationists have estimated that if they do nothing to stop the mice from breeding, 19 species of seabirds, including rare wandering albatrosses, will vanish from the island within 50 to 100 years. Dr. Anton Wolfaardt, the manager of the Mouse-Free Marion project, says the plan is to use helicopters to drop up to 550 tons of rodeticide bait across the mice’s 115 square mile home. Despite the desperate eradication effort, Wolfaardt said the mass killing was “an ecological restoration project,” to “solve once and for all a conservation threat.”