The RSPB placed mini rat motels
across the area filled with cocoa and peanut butter flavoured wax blocks to
catch them
2 MARCH 2018 • 12:01AM
A remote Scottish island has
officially been declared rat-free after rodents were caught using peanut butter
and chocolate.
In a four year programme to
rid the
Shiant Isles of its rodents, the RSPB placed mini rat motels
across the area filled with cocoa and peanut butter flavoured wax blocks to
catch them.
It is hoped by ridding the island
of its non-native rats the seabird populations will be boosted by protecting
their breeding sites.
The Isles, a cluster
of islands five miles east of the Isle of Lewis and Harris in
the Outer Hebrides, form one of the most important seabird breeding colonies in
Europe, providing a home for around 100,000 pairs of nesting seabirds each
year.
But it was feared that rats on
the islands were feeding on eggs and chicks of the birds that breed there,
including puffins, razorbills, and guillemots.
A monitoring programme last month
found no evidence of rats - meaning none of the creatures have been recorded on
the Isles for two years, meeting the internationally agreed criterion for
rat-free status.
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