Science
Mice on remote Atlantic island eat birds
London | May 21, 2008 12:01:13 AM IST
Mice on a remote South Atlantic island have adapted so well to local conditions that they are threatening the survival of some nesting bird species. The mice on Gough Island, descended from escapees from a whaling vessel, are two or three times the size of their ancestors, The Daily Telegraph reports. The rodents have also become carnivorous, eating the chicks of nesting birds. The island, part of the British dependency of Tristan da Cunha, is 220 miles from its closest neighbor in the group, 2,000 miles from South America and 1,700 miles from Cape Town, South Africa. The only human inhabitants of the 36-square-mile volcanic island are the crew of a weather station. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said that given Gough Island's importance as a nesting colony the government should organize an airdrop of tons of mouse poison -- an operation that would cost more than $5 million. Scientists documented the mice's changed eating habits last year in the journal Biology Letters. Cameras set up around bird nests showed mice working in groups to attack albatross chicks many times their size. (UPI)
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