Fight Rages On Against Invasive Rats

摘要

Conservationists have stepped up their war against alien rats in the Galapagos. Officials with Ecuador's Galapagos National Park announced that with conservationists from various nonprofit organizations, they had begun carpet-bombing the archipelago's smaller islands with rat poison systematically released from a helicopter. Rats first arrived as stowaways in Western sailing ships and are a problem because they eat native tortoise and bird eggs. Although conservationists have been killing rats for years using bait and traps, the new strategy aims for " 100% eradication" from nine islands and islets, including Jervis and Beagle islands, the officials announced in a statement.