<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/10/rats-and-rabbits-invasive-species-macquarie-island-southern-ocean-aoe>
"On a world map, Macquarie Island is a speck in the Southern Ocean, but for
ecologists it is a beacon, illuminating a future for grand-scale environmental
recovery projects.
Melissa Houghton first set foot on the 34km-long green streak as a dog handler
in late 2011. Rabbits, cats, rats and mice had been introduced by sealers in
the 1800s and were wreaking havoc on the world heritage site. At their peak,
there were approximately 300,000 European rabbits and an untold number of black
rats and house mice.
During their trip, Houghton and a labrador named Wags found what would prove to
be the last vertebrate pests left on the island: an adult rabbit and her young.
In 2014, Macquarie was declared pest free, the largest island to successfully
eliminate rabbits to date.
Ten years after Wags sniffed out the last rabbit, the island has sprung back to
life, and Houghton has stuck around to witness the change. She gave up dog
handling, became a scientist and completed her PhD as part of the research team
monitoring the island’s resurgence.
“Seeing it rebound, knowing it’s got a long way to go, and that we don’t know
what else is going to happen, it’s so exciting,” Houghton says."
Via
Future Crunch Aug 20, 2022:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-on-cervical-cancer-in-rwanda-a-climate-bill-for-the-united-states-and-saiga-antelope-in-kazakhstan/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
