A potential rat sighting on St. Paul Island, part of Alaska's Pribilof Islands known for its diverse birdlife, has sparked concern among residents and wildlife officials. While no evidence of rats has been found yet, the threat they pose to seabird populations is well-documented.
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“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,” said Lauren Divine, director of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island’s ecosystem conservation office.
There have been no traces of any rats since the reported sighting this summer, but the hunt and heightened state of vigilance is likely to persist for months. The diversity and number of breeding birds on islands with established, non-native rat populations are noticeably low, the agency has said. Carcasses of least auklets and crested auklets, which are known for their noisy nesting colonies in rocky areas, have been found in rat-food caches on Kiska Island, one of the four islands, where rat footprints have been spotted on the wet, sandy shoreline.
The foxes were eradicated in 1984, but it was nearly a quarter century later when wildlife agents and conservation groups killed off the rats by dropping poison pellets from a helicopter. Those involved said that without nesting seabirds, the island was eerily silent compared to the cacophony of other, rat-free islands, and it even smelled different.
Rats Alaska Pribilof Islands Seabirds Wildlife Conservation
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