Invasive mice are devouring albatrosses alive on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, so conservationists have come up with an explosive solution — “bombing” the mice.
Mice have been wreaking havoc on Marion Island, between South Africa and Antarctica, for decades. Humans accidentally introduced the mice in the 19th century, and the rodents have since developed a taste for wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) and other threatened seabirds.
The Mouse-Free Marion Project, a collaboration between the South African government and BirdLife South Africa, is trying to raise $29 million to drop 660 tons (600 metric tons) of rodenticide-laced pellets onto the island in winter 2027, AFP news agency reported on Saturday (Aug. 24).
The project plans to send a squad of helicopters to drop the pellets. By striking in winter when the mice are most hungry, the conservationists hope to eradicate the entire mouse population of up to 1 million individuals.
This place has the weirdest fuckin attitudes about interventions to remediate harms humans have caused to the ecosystem. Yes humans can actually intervene in nature in a positive way! We don’t have to just let the biosphere be consumed by invasive species that we’ve spread to corners of the earth! We know these methods work because we’ve tried them, not just relied on youtuber/high-school level bio knowledge to speculate about why it would or wouldn’t work!
I think it’s partially an emotional thing. Considering some people here see humans and other animals as equals, stuff like
By striking in winter when the mice are most hungry, the conservationists hope to eradicate the entire mouse population of up to 1 million individuals.
can sound downright evil. But handling invasive species absolutely requires measures like this or else the native species and ecosystem will continue to suffer.
Yeah I mean I get that sure. For example I am vegan and I also fuckin love cardinals. Cutest birds/creatures in the entire world in my opinion. I have names for all the cardinals on my street and recognize them individually. However, every single cardinal living on Hawaii has to die. If I personally had to kill one it would probably give me PTSD. I accidentally killed one in RDR2 once and still feel bad about it. But they all gotta go. The way to think about it I guess is that the crime has already taken place. We doomed these creatures as soon as we unleashed them upon the land where they cause all this trouble. And now it’s just paying the price for that action which was so easy at the time.
I admit I didn’t read the article when I should have, but it just blows that animals acting entirely within their nature have to suffer and die because of human carelessness. It’s really hard to accept there isn’t a better way.
I still mean what i said that with $29 million dollars we could find a more humane and ecologically-aware solution. Logistically speaking, I can’t think of one right now, but we’re smart. I have to believe that we could solve something like this without hurting anyone.
I get that it isn’t feasible now and that a plan like is likely to cause less harm in the long run, but it still sucks, you know?
before inserting a bunch of poison into the food web–jesus christ, people still come up with and greenlight these ideas–they should do that thing in the bond movie from the villain speach javier bardam gave.
i doubt it would work, but i really appreciate a completely unhinged villain speech.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Marion Island can have outside cats, as a treat.
I wonder about the half-life on this poison. Cause theoretically, some stuff could break down before proper bioaccumulation.
Holy fuck that’s a bad idea. Anything that eats the mice are going to be fucked. Hawks, eagles, osprey, owls.
Fuuuuck.
Do you even know where Marion island is? It’s halfway between South Africa and Antarctica. I can assure you, no “Hawks, eagles, ospreyes or owls” are going to be able to reach or fly to Marion island. They don’t live there. The bird life that actually lives on the island mainly consists of endangered albatrosses and petrels, which are the birds being preyed on by the mice. Similar rodent eradication plans have been done on similar sized remote islands using the poison and helicopter approach, and have been successful with minimal environmental impact, because most of the birds that live on these remote islands don’t eat at land, they eat at sea. The brown skua is the major concern for eating poisoned mice, but their population should bouce back from the ill effects. It’s either do nothing and watch the rodents drive the birds to extinction by killing hundreds of thousands of birds a year according to the article (including 8 adult wandering albatrosses), or do something to try save them with a method that’s worked before.
Just like the mice humans introduced, that poison won’t remain isolated on the island. If it doesn’t go into the stomach of an animal, it will leach into the ground or contaminate the ocean.
For $30 million dollars, they could solve this problem in a less extreme way.
