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| comment | | "parent_author":"",<br>"parent_permlink":"photographyy",<br>"author":"afrid",<br>"permlink":"wildlife-to-native-birds-benefit-conservationists-declare-south-georgia-clear-of-invasive-rodents-for-first-time-in-more-than",<br>"title":"Wildlife To native birds\u2019 benefit,<br> conservationists declare South Georgia clear of invasive rodents for first time in more than 200 years.",<br>"body":"![4-Photo-P.-Paladines-720x480.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmbtp3YWe41ZRbmWHyF2sJLxwdULxGyN4EY4mu44zcbcwK\/4-Photo-P.-Paladines-720x480.jpg)\n\nSouth Georgia. Photo: Carl Safina\nCelebrated sea captain James Cook implanted a British flag down into the rocky,<br> icy ground on the shore of South Georgia in 1775. When he did so,<br> he claimed ownership of the icy,<br> mountainous Antarctic island not only for his country\u2019s humans,<br> but,<br> inadvertently,<br> also for its rodents. From the arrival of Cook onward,<br> ships carrying explorers,<br> scientists,<br> whalers,<br> fishers and seal hunters continued to fuel the island\u2019s exploding population of rats and mice. The rodents quickly adapted to the cold and icy conditions of their unforgiving new home\u2014subsisting off local animals,<br> particularly seabird chicks,<br> which\u2014like most remote island animals\u2014never evolved defenses against such ruthless predation.![WildRat-720x540.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmbNR7ByJYKhmvTnuZoGxe7gHzZrWoJQh5uzCo2P95yXzT\/WildRat-720x540.jpg)\n\n\nWild rat. Photo: Reg Mckenna\/Wikimedia commons\nAfter more than 200 years after they first colonized South Georgia,<br> by the early 2000s,<br> rats and mice had munched many native species to the very edge of existence,<br> including the South Georgia pipit,<br> a tiny songbird,<br> and South Georgia pintail,<br> a duck\u2014two birds found nowhere else in the world. But after seven years of eradication work,<br> launched in 2011,<br> conservation group South Georgia Heritage Trust has just announced it has completely rid the island of rodents. This,<br> the Trust says,<br> will provide a safer future for South Georgia\u2019s native wildlife\u2014especially its vulnerable native birds. South Georgia is home to the largest and second-largest king penguin colonies in the world,<br> as well as countless other bird species,<br> including albatross,<br> shearwaters,<br> petrels,<br> cormorants,<br> skuas and more.![4-Photo-P.-Paladines-1140x450.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmYVKqeTy69jM9xrvUf4iqWLziN3bkF6xEmojqGvqdTx5A\/4-Photo-P.-Paladines-1140x450.jpg)\n\n\nGray-headed albatross in ground nest in South Georgia. Photo: Patricia Paladines\n\u201cThanks to the outstanding work of the passionate and committed members of Team Rat and the Board of Trustees,<br> the birds of South Georgia are free from the threat of rodents,<br>\u201d said Mike Richardson,<br> chairman of the South Georgia Heritage Trust said in his announcement. \u201cThe Trust can now turn its attention and efforts to working with the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands on conservation of a different kind: the conservation and reinterpretation of the island\u2019s historic cultural heritage to educate and enlighten future generations about our environment.\u201d\n\nSouth Georgia Heritage Trust rolled out its rodent eradication work over four phases,<br> from 2011 to present. For three field seasons,<br> \u201cTeam Rat\u201d\u2014a group of pilots,<br> engineers,<br> chefs,<br> doctors and field staff\u2014was deployed to South Georgia. The field team prepared hundreds of tons of poisoned bait that was dropped from several helicopters cruising over the island. The hope was that the rodents would take the bait and then retreat to their underground burrows to die,<br> out of reach of scavenging animals,<br> like gulls,<br> that could potentially be poisoned by eating dead rats and mice.\n\nIn 2017,<br> two years after it dropped its final round of poison,<br> South Georgia Heritage Trust rolled out the final phase of its project: checking the island for signs of rodents. Field staff placed thousands of wooden stakes into the ground,<br> and tied to them wax tags and plastic cards dipped in vegetable oil or peanut butter\u2014attractive snacks for gnawing rats\u2014to check for signs of rodents. Two canine handlers lead three rodent-detection dogs across South Georgia. By the end of 2017,<br> the devices and dogs exposed no signs of rats.![King-Haakon-Bay2-_002convert-720x481.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmbeNzy5qM3iTPukmv8xT9jMZB4QHCxqQb9vsq4mxWd9dG\/King-Haakon-Bay2-_002convert-720x481.jpg)\n\n\nKing Hakkon Bay,<br> South Georgia. Photo: Carl Safina\nThe presence of invasive rodents on remote islands is extremely dangerous to native species. I have seen the incredible devastation rats can cause to seabird colonies on islands in the Atlantic,<br> on Midway Atoll,<br> in New Zealand\u2019s sub-Antarctic,<br> and in South Georgia.![Carl-w-albatr-by-Patricia-Paladines-720x405.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmcF47JcXMNZpPCh1QWcJmhwaq9T5TyLyvMN8DajdPek3M\/Carl-w-albatr-by-Patricia-Paladines-720x405.jpg)\n\n\nIn South Georgia,<br> with black-browed albatross.\nPhoto: Patricia Paladines\nBut I have also witnessed the benefits of eradication,<br> the more-incredible resurgence of birds and vegetation when rats are vanquished from the same oceanic islands,<br> including the outer islands of South Georgia; those smaller islands had already been made rat-free by the last time I visited a little over a year ago. Rats have probably driven more island-bird extinctions than any other human-introduced species. South Georgia\u2019s pipit has now been saved from likely extinction and there will probably be hundreds of thousands,<br> perhaps millions,<br> more seabirds nesting there in coming years.![DSC_4708-_007convert-720x480.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmcbihJr8U99qKMAjfPweQrUNSXnRusZDwyVEJx2HGMaZG\/DSC_4708-_007convert-720x480.jpg)\n\n\nBlack-browed albatrosses in South Georgia. Photo: Carl Safina\nEcologist Carl Safina is author of seven books,<br> including the best-selling \u201cBeyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel,<br>\u201d and \u201cSong for the Blue Ocean,<br>\u201d which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His writing has won a MacArthur \u201cgenius\u201d prize; Pew and Guggenheim Fellowships; book awards from Lannan,<br> Orion,<br> and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs,<br> James Beard,<br> and George Rabb medals. His work has been featured in The New York Times,<br> The Los Angeles Times,<br> The Washington Post,<br> National Geographic,<br> CNN.com and elsewhere,<br> and he hosted the 10-part \u201cSaving the Ocean\u201d on PBS. Safina is founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University.![SoGA_03-e1526063978651-720x162.jpg (https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmPJw95L3r3TyjUXkojBf2mitPRGGZAbWztGN7SPPu8WSb\/SoGA_03-e1526063978651-720x162.jpg)",<br>"json_metadata":" \"tags\":[\"photographyy\",<br>\"of\",<br>\"national\",<br>\"geography\" ,<br>\"image\":[\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmbtp3YWe41ZRbmWHyF2sJLxwdULxGyN4EY4mu44zcbcwK\/4-Photo-P.-Paladines-720x480.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmbNR7ByJYKhmvTnuZoGxe7gHzZrWoJQh5uzCo2P95yXzT\/WildRat-720x540.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmYVKqeTy69jM9xrvUf4iqWLziN3bkF6xEmojqGvqdTx5A\/4-Photo-P.-Paladines-1140x450.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmbeNzy5qM3iTPukmv8xT9jMZB4QHCxqQb9vsq4mxWd9dG\/King-Haakon-Bay2-_002convert-720x481.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmcF47JcXMNZpPCh1QWcJmhwaq9T5TyLyvMN8DajdPek3M\/Carl-w-albatr-by-Patricia-Paladines-720x405.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmcbihJr8U99qKMAjfPweQrUNSXnRusZDwyVEJx2HGMaZG\/DSC_4708-_007convert-720x480.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemitimages.com\/DQmPJw95L3r3TyjUXkojBf2mitPRGGZAbWztGN7SPPu8WSb\/SoGA_03-e1526063978651-720x162.jpg\" ,<br>\"app\":\"steemit\/0.1\",<br>\"format\":\"markdown\" " |
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