How poison is saving millions of seabirds
Conservationists have eliminated rats and other invasive mammals from 666 islands worldwide, giving a fighting chance to endangered seabirds and hundreds of other species. But not without controversy.
I’m in love with Wisdom the albatross. She’s the oldest known bird alive, at 73, and was still raising chicks until her mate disappeared two years ago. Wisdom nests on Midway Atoll, where she endures tsunamis, hurricanes, ocean plastic and mice. But since 1996, she hasn’t had to put up with any rats eating her eggs. That’s because Midway Atoll, a northern Hawaiian island and former military base, is among the first places where Island Conservation killed off all the rats.
For the last several decades, organizations like Island Conservation, Flora &Fauna and Re:wild have deployed millions of pounds of poison-laced cereal to eradicate droves of ravenous rodents from hundreds of remote islands. These efforts have renewed life on islands worldwide, from Africa to the Caribbean and from Alaska to Antarctica.
Restoration often includes trapping and removing other invasive mammals like rabbits, goats and pigs. Once free of invaders, native plants regrow, insects and snails rebound, and seabirds return. Seabirds fertilize islands with their guano. Those nutrients run off into the sea and help build food webs that include coral, plankton, reef fish, sharks, seals, dolphins and whales.
The hard work and cooperation of concerned scientists, conservationists, worldwide donors and native people are rectifying centuries of damage and extinction.
From Science Advisor:
Over the past half-century, people have made 820 attempts on 666 islands, according to a database maintained by the nonprofit Island Conservation. As a result, boobies, shearwaters, petrels, and other seabirds have recovered, and island creatures from lizards to stick insects have reclaimed their homes.
Not without controversy
Poisoning rodents does not abide without controversy. Plans are moving ahead to kill off cannibalistic mice that have overrun the Farallon Islands1 near the coast of Northern California. Citizens who dislike any poison are concerned about seagulls potentially feeding on dying mice. Scientists say the mice must go because they’re decimating native plants and attracting burrowing owls that also eat endangered ashy storm petrel chicks.
Naysayers are often concerned about poison running off into oceans that are teeming with life around islands. Conservationists say the anticoagulant diphacinone is safe, kills only rodents, and has a half-life of only a day. Plus, unlike urban use of rodenticide, it won’t climb up a food chain: Predators are rare on these islands. Diphacinone is a blood-thinner similar to the medication coumadin (warfarin) that humans take.
Conservation plans usually involve more than just killing or removing invasive mammals. Once these predators are gone, people deploy a variety of innovative methods to attract seabirds back to islands, such as decoys, call boxes that mimic seabird noises, and mirrors that convey their species is welcome.
To succeed, build your coalition first
Out of all these efforts, my favorite is that of Lehua, a tiny crescent of leftover volcano that rises into a steep island in the Pacific. Lehua is home to one of Hawai'i’s most diverse seabird colonies. In 2009, Island Conservation tried to rid Lehua of rats and failed.
Five years later, in 2014, they renewed their efforts. This time, they consulted with native Hawaiians on the neighboring island of Ni‘ihau2 and expanded their group of stakeholders. Folks on Ni‘ihau had already seen seabirds rebound after rabbits were eliminated from Lehua in 2006. When controversy erupted on Kauaʻi about the use of poison, the new partnerships helped bolster the case.
From Lehua Island: Past & Future:
These lessons and the continued engagement of the owners and residents of Ni’ihau became keystones of the project moving forward.
The people of Ni’ihau, who live only a mile away, offered some pretty practical advice:
Don’t dump the bait in winter when it’s more likely to rain.
Don’t dump the bait right before a hurricane.
Don’t dump bait when the wind is high and it’s more likely to blow into the ocean.
Dump the bait in summer when the rats are stressed and starved.
Lehua rises 704 feet (215 meters) above sea level. This means it stands as a significant potential refuge for seabirds as waters rise and shrink habitat at lower elevation Hawaiian islands to the north, including Midway Atoll.
Lehua was declared rat-free in 2021.
“The birds are doing amazingly well,” said Mele Khalsa with Island Conservation in the video below. “We’ve seen a lot of recovery, just in a short amount of time and we know that it’s just going to continue. The trials and tribulations of the humans are one thing, but ultimately it’s all for the birds and they are doing extremely well, so it makes it all worth it.
“Rat eradication is just the first step for this island. Once that’s complete, that opens the door to a lot of other restoration projects.”
Projects that engage communities succeed (see my previous post on this topic: Conservation takes a village). When conservationists do the hard work of tapping a wide array of knowledge, conducting cost-benefit analysis, listening to concerned citizens, and bringing in volunteers and monitors, pretty soon they’re co-creating solutions and successes (see also This is how you save a river: A lawsuit, a streamkeeper and 80 tons of gravel). Here’s to millions of seabirds like Wisdom raising chicks in peace.
Who speaks for “uninhabited” islands?
Islands are “extinction epicenters,” where a majority of bird, reptile, mammal and amphibian extinctions have taken place. These “uninhabited islands,” so far away from modern civilizations, host no newspapers, no “stacks,” no city councils, and no voters to rally and make decisions. Their ecosystems consist of birds, plants, snails, and flowers, maybe some crickets, lizards and tiny moths, plus coral, fish and seals below who benefit from the nutrients seabirds provide. All seemingly without a voice.
And yet, someone heard them calling.
Two concerned scientists launched Island Conservation 30 years ago. Two people. And look what they’ve accomplished!
Kuleana: Embracing responsibility
I spent five years of my childhood in Hawai'i. In all Hawaiian elementary schools, children learn a bit of Hawaiian language, how to cook traditional foods like poi and make crafts like leis. When we sang “This Land Is Your Land,” I had no idea what a redwood forest or gulf stream water was. I was too busy learning how volcanic islands are made and how to pronounce Hawai'i’s state fish, the humuhumunukunukuāpua‘a (see one-minute voiceover above).3 We learned about the state’s incredible array of birds and plants and why they are threatened. My teacher would stop class and have us all look out on the lawn if a kolea (Pacific golden plover) or ‘ūlili (wandering tattler) decided to pay a visit.
Every day, we were immersed in lessons of stewardship and native Hawaiian ethics: Care for the Earth, which provides for you. I’d like to leave you with these Hawaiian words and phrases:
‘Āina: Land or that which feeds
Mālama ‘Āina: caring for the land
Ahupuaʻa: A system of subdividing land in wedges that span from mountains to sea, ensuring management cohesion within watersheds.
Kuleana, from Hawaii News Now:
The word kuleana refers to a reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible and the thing which they are responsible for.
For example, Hawaiians have a kuleana to our land: to care for it and to respect it, and in return, our land has the kuleana to feed, shelter, and clothe us, through this relationship we maintain balance within society and with our natural environment.
Aloha!
Hopeful headlines:
It’s just the latest in a string of high-profile success stories from islands all over Australia’s territorial waters, where conservationists are achieving their goals of returning these isolated ecosystems back to how they were before Europeans arrived.
California: Levee breach marks completion of the Delta’s largest-ever tidal wetland restoration project
Endangered California condors seen soaring over Mount Diablo
Palmyra Atoll: Guam kingfisher, extinct outside captivity, returns to the wild for the first time in 40 years (thanks to help from zoos in London and Kansas)
The Poachers Who Could Save Mexico’s Vaquita (the smallest whale species)
Brazil: One of Earth’s biggest freshwater fish is bouncing back, a rare ‘win win’
India: How farmers and fishers are protecting one of the world’s rarest reptiles
Africa: Things Are Looking Up for Africa’s Upside-Down Baobab Trees
A researcher followed up on a study warning that the massive trees were in danger, and found many venerable specimens thriving.
Here on Substack: “Meet the Strawberry Squid 🍓,” by
If you thought the ocean’s twilight zone was full of slugs and bugs, all teeth and tentacles, the spiny and the serpentine, you’d be exactly right. But among the vampires, vipers, and goblins a thousand metres deep, there’s a rather sweet creature hiding in plain sight - the Strawberry Squid.
AI headline musing of the week:
“Fish” … an exciting word. “Local’ … how precise. And, a “fish in … water”? How surprising. I know AI wrote this because a human would be much more jazzed. What would be my headline? You know it:
Endangered sturgeon return to Connecticut River!!!
🤸🏼♂️👍🏼👍🏾👍🏻👍🏽😃😹
How do you say Papahānaumokuākea, the marine national monument that encompasses Midway Atoll?
About Earth Hope:
Earth Hope is a solutions-based journalism project that highlights environmental success stories from around the globe, because hope is the foundation of progress. Consuming bad news is important, but we should also remind ourselves frequently that progress happens every day. Read more about this project and what inspired it.
About me:
I’m Amanda Royal, a former newspaper reporter who covered wildfires, invasive species, water quality, wildlife and other environmental topics in California and Nevada (while writing under my maiden name and byline Amanda Fehd). The pseudonym “Earth” was a bit accidental. It grew on me quickly, so I thought I’d keep it for a while. I’m new to Substack as of late July 2024. Thanks for the wonderful reception!
Signing off with my last entry in Notes:
Seabird eggs were once harvested by the millions from the Farallon Islands to feed a growing population in San Francisco.
Ni‘ihau is privately owned by the Robinson family. A condition of the sale in 1864 was that the native Hawaiian village on the island would be left alone.
I only learned recently that these lessons were part of a curriculum introduced into Hawaiian schools in 1980 after a constitutional amendment mandated the teaching of the Hawaiian culture, history and language.
Eliminating rats on islands is a good example of humans ability to make a difference and bring back native wildlife.
This is awesome news! I love Wisdom the Albatross!! I never thought about rats eating their eggs but it makes so much sense. And I’m so happy you called out the importance of coalitions especially with Native communities who have so much historical insight. Lastly, I had no idea that they use mirrors and recordings of bird sounds to attract them to the islands. That is bananas.
This post was chock full of happy endings, I really liked reading about the sea turtles in Australia, the strawberry squid, and the endangered sturgeon!! As always, thank you for putting a positive spin on conservation.