Giant predatory mice brought to a remote South Atlantic island by 19th century sailors are killing two million birds a year including a critically endangered breed of albatross

The predatory mice are 'two or three times larger' than an average house mouse  

They eat away at the flesh of chicks, causing them to suffer for days before dying

The RSPB and Tristan da Cunha government hope eradicate the mice in 2020

By BRENDAN MCFADDEN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 20:43, 22 October 2018 | UPDATED: 20:46, 22 October 2018

Mice brought to a remote South Atlantic island by sailors in the 19th Century  which have evolved to two or three times the size of the average house mouse are killing up to £2million seabirds a year. 

The predatory mice attack in groups and eat away at the flesh of chicks - leaving them suffering for days before the open wounds lead to their deaths, the RSPB said  

The predatory mice attack in groups and eat away at the flesh of chicks - leaving them suffering for days before the open wounds lead to their deaths, the RSPB said 

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the rodents have proliferated on uninhabited Gough Island, part of a British overseas territory, and are killing two million birds every year.

In order to protect the birds, the RSPB and Tristan da Cunha government are teaming up with international partners to eradicate mice from Gough Island in 2020, using two helicopters laden with poisonous pellets. 

Alex Bond, a researcher from the Natural History Museum in London, said in a statement released by the RSPB: 'We knew there were large numbers of chicks and eggs being beaten each year but the actual number being taken by the mice is just staggering,'.

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Another Poor Breeding Season for Tristan Albatross on Gough Island

05 OCT 2018

ISLAND NEWS, NEWS

Island Conservation partners, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), recently completed an annual census of native Tristan Albatross on Gough Island and the results are grim.

The life of an albatross chick between the time when it hatches from the egg until it can eventually fly away isn’t particularly glorious. Hunkered down between wet grass on windswept islands in the southern oceans these chicks have to wait for their feathers to grow. They have to endure gale-force winds and driving rain, hail, and snow, and wait… not for a few days or weeks, but roughly for 8-9 months.

Sadly, many chicks do not survive that long.

The inclement weather, however, isn’t the main culprit for dying Tristan albatross chicks on Gough Island in the South Atlantic. Invasive mice that were introduced by sailors have gradually learned to eat albatross chicks that are too young to to fly or run away. Every year, hundreds of albatross chicks are killed and eaten by mice.

Read more  

Invasive Mice Endanger the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross on Gough Island

15 MAY 2018

ISLAND NEWS, NEWS

Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross have been pushed to the brink of extinction by invasive mice on Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. But, that will soon change. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is taking action to protect the albatross by removing invasive mice.

This article contains descriptions and a video of mice predating on live birds and may be upsetting.

By: Kate Lawrence

On the evening of 20 February 2018, I watched an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross chick die before my eyes, as it was eaten alive by mice. I arrived at nest 14 at 9.30pm. Mice were feeding on the chick’s already open back-wound by 10 pm. And less than one hour later, the chick from nest 14 was dead.

In this line of work, you see plenty of dead animals. On Gough Island, we regularly see the remains of dead birds: albatross that crash land during extreme wind events; adults standing over dead chicks soon after hatching (cause of death unknown); and scattered carcasses of burrowing petrels and prions left after skua predation. Eggs and chicks and adult birds die of natural causes all the time. Death and predation are part of the natural ecosystem. But on Gough Island, mice are not.

Read on  

The giant albatross endangered by monster mice

23 October 2016 

 

A remote colony of seabirds is at risk from an unlikely predator - an army of tiny house mice. But one man is making it his mission to drive out the marauding rodents, says Chris Carnegy.

Keith Springer doesn't really do birthdays. That's just as well, because when he turned 55 a few weeks ago he was on a forbidding lump of rock, south of the Roaring Forties. His handful of companions made him a cake, and that was that. I wonder what sort of presents he normally receives. What do you get a guy who's one of the most prolific killers on earth?

Springer carries an air of steely determination. Home is near Christchurch, New Zealand, but he's done his contract-killing in many places around the southern hemisphere. And now he's facing one of the biggest challenges of his life - the monster mice of Gough Island.

We met on a polar research ship called the Agulhas. Six days out of Cape Town it dropped me at the remote British island of Tristan da Cunha, where I do some volunteering for the local government. I saw Keith again on the return leg, by which time he'd sailed further south, and landed on Tristan's sister island.
 

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Flesh-eating MICE threaten to wipe out rare birds on wildlife paradise island

DEADLY flesh-eating mice are threatening to wipe out some of the world’s rarest birds on a precious wildlife paradise run by Britain.

By STUART WINTER

Plagues of hungry rodents are killing up to 600,000 birds a year on one of the UK’s 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Conservationists warned today that Gough Island in the South Atlantic is in danger of losing its prestigious status – a standing that puts it on par with the Great Barrier Reef, Yellowstone National Park and the Galapagos archipelago – unless the carnivorous mice are not wiped out.

Britain has 30 World Heritage Sites, including Stonehenge, the Giant’s Causeway and Blenheim Palace as well as four overseas, but there are mounting fears for the future of Gough Island’s status because of the mice infestation.

A new report timed to coincide with the 40th World Heritage Committee meeting is revealing how the mice are causing massive breeding failure in most of the seabird colonies, including the threatened Atlantic petrel and the critically endangered Tristan albatross, now down to its last 2,000 pairs.

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