Tiny Alaskan island known as the Galapagos of the North in panic over possible rat sighting
Oh, rats!A tiny Alaskan island known as the “Galapagos of the North” with a population of just 350 is in a panic over a singular rat that may not even exist.Residents of the St.
Paul Island in the Bering Sea have been on the hunt for the potential rodent for roughly three months after a local reported possibly catching a glimpse of a rat in June.Rats don’t exist on the remote island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands.
The introduction of the animal — which may have hitched a ride on a plane or boat — could set off a chain reaction that would endanger its thriving seabird population which has made St.Paul a worldwide birding destination.
“It’s just the abundance of wildlife that we hear stories or read historical accounts of, but really seldom see in kind of our modern age,” said Donald Lyons, director of conservation science with the National Audubon Society’s Seabird Institute.“And so [St.
Paul] really is a place where I’ve felt the wonder, the spectacle of nature.”Rats, which reproduce rapidly, have taken over other remote islands and obliterated their bird populations as the rodents feast on bird eggs, chicks and sometimes even adult birds.“We know — because we’ve seen this on other islands and in other locations in Alaska and across the world — that rats absolutely decimate seabird colonies, so the threat is never one that the community would take lightly,” Lauren Divine, director of the Aleut Community of St.
Paul Island’s ecosystem conservation office, told the Associated Press.Once the rats take control of an island, it often takes millions of dollars and several years to exterminate them all — and then several more years for the bird populations to come back.Though the resident isn’t 100% sure they saw the whiskered pest, the wildlife officials have been setting up elaborate traps to try to find it.
After searching low and high for any signs of the possible visitor — droppings, tracks or gnaw marks — the ...