TThe dramatic sea cliffs, crags and crags of Rathlin Island, County Antrim, rise more than 200 meters above the Atlantic Ocean and are home to Britain's largest colony of seabirds, including hundreds of endangered puffins, and attract up to 20,000 birdwatchers a year. and tourists gather.
On a gloriously sunny day in September, the cliff face is bird-free, with puffins already on their annual migration to spend the winter months at sea. Instead, Rathlin's cliffs are dotted with roped figures in harnesses and inflated rucksacks, with Scottish climbers giving directions via walkie-talkie from above.
They are part of an elite team of 40 scientists, researchers, conservationists and volunteers who will this week drop the first poisoned food into a bait station designed to kill rats on the island. This is the final stage of £4.5 million project This is to eradicate a major predator believed to be affecting the island's puffin colonies. The ferrets were eradicated in the first stage, and it has been a year since they were last seen. According to , puffin numbers here declined by 74% between 1991 and 2021. EU research.
“It's a lot of work,” says Stuart Johnston, director of operations at ClimbWire International, which trains scientists and researchers to use ropes to access remote areas. “Some of the highest cliffs in Britain are on this island. The tops of these cliffs are made of basalt and laterite and are very fragile, so we can't rappel down. We have to go underground. , and that's where the climbing begins.
Johnston and his staff have been preparing for this event for the past year as part of this event. life raft projecta partnership between the EU and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, including RSPB Northern Ireland and local community associations. He points to a horizontal stainless steel safety wire that runs across the middle of the 150-metre-high Knockans Cliffs and is clipped to prevent climbers from falling into the Atlantic Ocean when setting traps. Traps, or “bait stations” designed for rats, are plastic tubes with wires attached to keep out crows, rabbits and other non-target species.
For the next seven months, rain, snow, and shine, the climbers scale each cliff, climb each crag, and fill their traps with poison. Meanwhile, other climbers cover fields, forests, gardens, and other terrain. “The shelves are full of shite birds, and they're just chirping,” Johnston said. “The library is full of rats.”
The rats probably arrived on boats centuries ago, and the ferrets were intentionally released to control the rabbits. Both feed on seabirds and their chicks, and were ubiquitous until last year, when about 100 ferrets were captured and killed in the first phase of the project.
Eradicating rats and other invasive animals from islands is one of the most effective means of protecting wildlife, according to a 2022 study that analyzed data stored in the Island Invasive Animal Database. , which has an 88% success rate and leads to a dramatic increase in biodiversity. Eradication of species.
By early October, 6,700 traps had been placed in a grid across the 3,400-acre (1,400-hectare) island, one for each 50-meter square, the size of a rat's territory. Now they will be loaded with poison.
RSPB director Liam McFaul, who was born and raised in Rathlin, population 150, showed us around the cliffs and chimneys of the West Light Seabird Center and its 'upside down' lighthouse.
Below the lookout, two seals lie on a cobblestone beach beneath guano-splattered rocks. “In the summer, you can't see the turtle rocks; they all congregate in one area,” he says. He said around 200,000 murres (a family of birds that includes murres, puffins and whooping butterflies) nest here, and there are 12,000 pairs of kittiwakes.
“Puffins arrive from late April to July. They find the same mate each year. They are notoriously difficult to count because they nest in burrows in the ground, which makes them Makes you vulnerable.”
Years ago, they nested in grassy “aprons” at the top of cliffs, but now they nest in lower, more inaccessible spots, and the change in behavior has been linked to rodent McFall believes this is because a ferret or ferret reached the apron. One time, he spotted a ferret in a puffin's burrow near the beach and immediately set up a boat and trap to catch it. By the time we arrived there were 27 dead puffins lying on the stones.
Only one in three puffin chicks survive on Rathlin, compared to two out of three on rat-free islands. According to the RSPB. Ground-nesting birds such as puffins and Manx shearwaters are most at risk.
“Manx shearwaters have suffered a severe decline over the past 15 years,” Mr McFall said. “They may be endangered from the island. Only one or two remain on the remote cliffs in the north.”
Liam's brother Jim McFaul, 75, a Rathlin Island farmer, said the skies over the island had gradually become calmer in the 1990s and early 2000s due to a number of threats, including changes in farming practices. speak “I loved hearing the sandpipers at dusk and sunset,” he says. “It's like a drumbeat. I hardly ever hear it now. Corn rails were another bird. We couldn't sleep because of them, and we were calling and answering each other all night. ”
He hopes the eradication program will help not only the birds but also farmers. “No one can keep poultry anymore because of ferrets. They're like foxes. We've captured dozens of them, including some as big as white cats.”
The project will continue until 2026, at which point it is hoped that all ferrets and rats will be gone. Biosecurity measures will then continue, including training ferry operators on how to minimize the risk of rodents on board, including removing food, testing animal feed and closely monitoring the vessel.
Woody, a two-year-old Labrador retriever trained to detect ferret feces, was brought to the island this year to identify rogue animals and monitor the project's success.
Rathlin Development Community Association chairman and ferry captain Michael Cecil said some concerns had been raised about the ethics of killing ferrets and access to property needed for the project, but the community had been persuaded of the benefits. said. Much of its economy is based on the thousands of summer tourists attracted to seabirds.
“Ferrets caused all sorts of problems, and people used whatever means necessary. They were killed in the most humane way, including being run over by a car, drowning, being beaten with a club, or shot with a rifle. “It wasn't,” he says. “That's all over now.
“While we can't do anything about the broader global issues facing seabirds, we hope Rathlin can play its part.”
