> Rats were, quite literally, semi-mythical things to me.
Two years should elapse before an island can declare itself ‘rodent free’, allowing for any survivors to breed up to a detectable level.
So, in July 2023, the LHIB ‘Checkpoint’ program began its search for rodents.
Over a two-week period, teams systematically surveyed the island’s Permanent Park Preserve and the settlement area. More than 950 detection device checks were undertaken including 140 tracking tunnels, 32 trail cameras, and 300 wax tags and chew cards, along with sweeps by detection dogs. The collected evidence, analysed by the Island Eradication Advisory Group from the New Zealand Department of Conservation, found no signs of rats or mice on the island.
The island’s rodent population had – officially – been eradicated.
They've been lucky the area's too cold for Black Rats from ship wrecks to survive and decimate their colonies, as has happened to many birds on many islands and remote peninsulas.
On the other hand, I'm aware rats have managed to survived in South Georgia, and caused problems for local flora and fauna there.
"Temporal and Space-Use Changes by Rats in Response to Predation by Feral Cats in an Urban Ecosystem" - https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/a...
> The cats catching mice for their kittens give them an infection that kills within days.
In my part of the world cats are a rare sight on the streets, and virtually all of them wear a collar so they aren't feral. Meanwhile I can't recall ever having seen a rat, and according to the local statistics almost all rat extermination happens at farms.
Don't want rats in your city? Don't leave trash lying around in places easily-accessible to rats.
2. Why do we want fewer cats in our cities?
3. Would we rather fewer cats or fewer rats?
What else could shatter it?
How Alberta Eradicated Rats
Alberta is rat-free because its government has maintained an eradication program for three quarters of a century. That doesn't mean there are never rats in Alberta. It means that, when some show up, they're reported and destroyed. To date, the costs of maintaining the program have been smaller than the economic damage rats would otherwise inflict, so it has continued.
Bowden is nowhere near the border, so this is a little concerning. Hopefully it was just an isolated individual that made it in through a shipment.