A million out of control mice that are feasting on seabirds and causing havoc on a remote island are to be exterminated.
The whiskered rodents were accidentally introduced to Marion Island 200 years ago and are breeding wildly as climate change raises temperatures.
Now conservationists are taking drastic action on the tiny island situated in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean, between Antarctica and South Africa – with no margin for error.
The Mouse-Free Marion project – pest control on a grand scale – will see up to six helicopters drop 550 tons of rat poison across the island.
But if even one pregnant mouse survives, their prolific breeding ability means it may have all been for nothing.
The island is home to globally significant populations of nearly 30 bird species and a rare undisturbed habitat for wandering albatrosses – with their 10-foot wingspan – and many others.
Undisturbed, at least, until stowaway house mice arrived on seal hunter ships in the early 1800s, introducing the island’s first mammal predators. (Sky News)
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