Breaking news! Island officially declared rat-free!

By Sophie Thomas who is the RSPB's Project Manager for Seabird Island Restoration

Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity 2014. This year focus is on Island Biodiversity. This is because islands and their surrounding near-shore marine areas constitute unique ecosystems often comprising many plant and animal species that are endemic—found nowhere else on Earth. The legacy of a unique evolutionary history these ecosystems are irreplaceable treasures. They are also key to the livelihood, economy, well-being and cultural identity of 600 million islanders—one-tenth of the world’s population. This blog is the second of four celebrating some of the island work that the RSPB is involved in.

Dog Island, 9 miles to the north west of the UK Overseas Territory of Anguilla, has - today - been declared officially rat-free!

At just over 200ha (500 acres), it is the largest island in the east Caribbean region to have been successfully cleared of invasive rats. The removal of this non-native predator should help the internationally important seabirds and reptiles (such as hawksbill, leatherback and green turtles) that lay their eggs on the island, and hopefully the rest of the island's ecosystem, too. The island has, most likely, been rat-free now for two years, but under international protocols you have to wait this long for confirmation - it can be hard to confirm a negative when it comes to wildlife.

Magnificent Frigate Bird chicks, Sophie Thomas

After volunteering to help remove the rats and to camp on the uninhabited island for two months in 2012, I never thought I’d get to see the benefits of our efforts, executed under the relentless sun. But, remarkably (and in a story too long to recount here), I returned to Dog Island two weeks ago. Already the island is changing. Apart from a cliff fall that appears to have removed a (very) small cave – the only bit of shade to be had in the entire eastern half of the island – there seems to be more vegetation, more nests in trees, more flowers and fruit (I didn't see anything fruiting before), and the first records of breeding Audubon’s shearwaters... Since I spent most of my time looking at my feet for fear of stepping on eggs laid by a brown or masked booby or one of the islands 113,000 pairs of sooty terns, I suspect I missed all sorts of other things. Fortunately, people who can visit the island more frequently than me are monitoring the island's developments properly so that an objective assessment of ecological change will be possible.

 An enormous thank you and well done to everyone who helped with the project to remove rats from Dog Island. RSPB worked in partnership with the Anguilla National Trust, the Department of Environment (Anguilla), and Fauna and Flora International on this project.