To mark Invasive Species Week, Tessa Coledale, RSPB Biosecurity for England Officer, takes a look at how sniffer dogs, chocolate wax and boat rope guards help protect UK seabird islands from invasive predators and what simple steps you can take to help safeguard our internationally important seabird populations.
Rats have reached about 80% of the world’s islands making them one of the most successful invasive mammals. They can swim over a mile and hold their breath for three minutes, as well as squeezing through gaps just 12mm wide!
The UK is internationally important for breeding seabirds – for example, around 80% of the world’s Manx Shearwater spend their summer here. Seabirds often choose to nest on islands with no land predators, and ground or burrow nesting species such as Atlantic Puffin, Manx Shearwater, European Storm Petrel and all five species of breeding tern in the UK are particularly vulnerable to the introduction of invasive predators.
As the Biosecurity for England Officer it’s my job to visit some of these spectacular places to help local stakeholders implement biosecurity actions, reducing the chance of invasive predators reaching these islands. Who knew that you could be stranded in the middle of the Bristol Channel for twelve hours on Steep Holm but get to call this work!
Approaching Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel. Credit: Tessa Coledale/RSPB.
PreventionPrevention is the most important action and one that everyone can help us with. You’ll see our interpretation panels and awareness raising materials at key boat departure points around the UK. These highlight how important it is to pack your bag on the day of travel, check your bag for signs of stowaways, keep your food in rodent proof containers and ensure your bag isn’t left unattended. Each individual boat trip poses a low risk but as there are millions around the UK each year, the cumulative risk is very real.
Signs of rodent stowaways to look out for when checking your bag. Credit: Root Studio.
We’ve recently been working with tour boat operators in Northumberland who take visitors out to Coquet and the Farne Islands. They are currently installing rat rope guards, large plastic discs which spin around their mooring lines and anchor chains meaning that rats can’t climb along these to board their vessels when they are in harbour. Boat operators in Scotland are also installing these when they sign up to the Predator Free Certification being rolled out by my colleagues from Biosecurity for Scotland.
Rat rope guards with design by Root Studio, ready to be deployed close to important seabird islands in England. Credit: Tessa Coledale/RSPB.
DetectionOn the seabird islands, we work with conservation organisation staff and volunteers, as well as communities on inhabited islands such as St Agnes and Gugh in the Isles of Scilly. Here the community are integral to keeping the island rat free, volunteering to check over 100 surveillance boxes containing chocolate flavoured wax. These non-toxic blocks are used to detect if an invasive predator manages to reach an island and is tempted to have a chew leaving evidence behind, which can help identify it! We also use trail cameras and tracking tunnels with food lures to help detect anything that arrives. Tracking tunnels contain ink pads and card so that when an animal walks through them, they leave identifiable footprints.
Biosecurity Officer Tessa Coledale making wax chew blocks to be used in surveillance for invasive predators reaching seabird islands. Credit: Tessa Coledale/RSPB.
All of these detection tools are passive devices but a new tool in our toolkit is conservation detection dogs like Kuki who actively seek out a target smell. Kuki and her handler Laura carry out annual searches for rats on seabird islands around England and can also check high-risk cargo going to these islands. Dogs detect odours in parts per trillion, the equivalent of finding one dirty sock in a pile of two million clean ones! If Kuki or her canine colleagues Jinx (Biosecurity for Wales) and Reid (Biosecurity for Scotland) detect signs of a rat on an island, they are trained to sit still with their nose pointed towards the sign.
Laura and Kuki land on Lundy for their annual surveillance check for rats. Credit: Tessa Coledale/RSPB.
ResponseThe main aim of this biosecurity work is to prevent an invasive predator reaching a seabird island in the first place so that they don’t eat eggs or chicks of threatened species. What do we do if one of our detection tools identifies that something has reached a seabird island, well, we have to act fast! It only takes one pregnant female rat reaching an island to produce a colony of 300 rats in just eight months.
Since 2016 there have been 56 known biosecurity incidents affecting important seabird islands around the UK. These include six sites where live rats were found and seven sites where dead rats were found, as well as rodents found onboard two vessels heading out to seabird islands. There are seven Rapid Incursion Response Hubs around the UK with volunteer teams and the equipment required to respond if an invasive predator is suspected to have reached an important seabird island. We’re very grateful to the people who give us their time to help keep seabird islands around the UK safe from invasive predators.
Biosecurity is needed in perpetuity but the reward for this effort is clear when you look at islands such as Lundy which used to have rats. Since they were removed, the numbers of seabirds have increased from just over 7,000 in 2000 to over 40,000 in 2023!
The chicks and eggs of burrow-nesting or ground-nesting birds such as the Puffin are vulnerable to invasive predators. Credit: Annabel Sharpe (rspb-images.com).
How you can helpNext time you visit one of these magnificent sites remember to pack your bag on the day of travel, check your bag for signs of stowaways, keep your food in rodent proof containers and ensure your bag isn’t left unattended. If you spot anything suspicious, please report it to an island warden or biosecurityforlife@rspb.org.uk.
Be a biosecurity ambassador, check out our co-designed education resources for primary school children or our resources for kayak or boat users and help Save Our Seabirds.
If you live close to an important seabird island and have the time to commit to help during an incursion response, please take a look at our volunteer opportunities – we’d love for you to join our team!
AcknowledgementsBiosecurity for England, Biosecurity for Scotland and Biosecurity for Wales continue the work started by Biosecurity for LIFE, bringing together conservation organisations, island communities and businesses to safeguard the UK’s internationally important seabird islands against invasive non-native mammalian predators. Biosecurity for England is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Biosecurity for Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot. Biosecurity for Scotland is led by RSPB Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland, The Northern Lighthouse Board and NatureScot. Biosecurity for Wales is funded by the Welsh Government.
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