Who's Been to Palmyra?

[gamayun]

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/...f934000000.pdf

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

I followed the link to read the article. Thanks for posting it.

However, I did not see any mention of the number of rats killed, nor the means of killing them described in any way (e.g. poison, traps, etc.).

Anyone here know what method(s) they used to eliminate/kill the rats?

They left copies of "Latitude 38" and "Latitudes and Attitudes" for them. This eventually made them insane, forcing them to swim offshore and drown...sad really.

[CS Cruiser]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

I followed the link to read the article. Thanks for posting it.

However, I did not see any mention of the number of rats killed, nor the means of killing them described in any way (e.g. poison, traps, etc.).

Anyone here know what method(s) they used to eliminate/kill the rats?

RAT POISON

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by gamayun

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/...f934000000.pdf

Thanks for posting this link to the report abstract.

Amazing!

They used 41 people, two helicopters, and dumped 85,000 pounds of rat bait (poison) on the islands!

And this was the third eradication project over a 10 year period on the islands.

That is a LOT of rat bait!

The report estimates there were 90-120 rats per hectare of land and there are 581 acres or 235 hectares of land. Average of 105 rats per hectare, means an estimated total of 24,675 rats on the islands were killed.

I bet that was a smelly place for a while.

[SaltyMonkey]

It was very impressive. Took a month. Large cartons of pellets. They had teams walk around in waiders with sling shots and shoot poison bait into the trees.

PICS:

A Rat-Free Palmyra? | The Nature Conservancy

Palmyra Atoll is Rat-Free

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

Thanks for posting this link to the report abstract.

Amazing!

They used 41 people, two helicopters, and dumped 85,000 pounds of rat bait (poison) on the islands!

And this was the third eradication project over a 10 year period on the islands.

That is a LOT of rat bait!

The report estimates there were 90-120 rats per hectare of land and there are 581 acres or 235 hectares of land. Average of 105 rats per hectare, means an estimated total of 24,675 rats on the islands were killed.

I bet that was a smelly place for a while.

They use to tell us that there were x amount of brown tree snakes per acre everywhere on Guam,I saw 3 over a 10 year time frame!! Why not release hermorphidite rat snakes when you have a rat problem and then they would all die off after eating the rats! Always made me wonder why the tree snake was blamed for killing every single bird on Guam when chickens roamed every sq. inch. of the island and breed non stop...

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

They use to tell us that there were x amount of brown tree snakes per acre everywhere on Guam,I saw 3 over a 10 year time frame!! Why not release hermorphidite rat snakes when you have a rat problem and then they would all die off after eating the rats! Always made me wonder why the tree snake was blamed for killing every single bird on Guam when chickens roamed every sq. inch. of the island and breed non stop...

You must mean sterile and not hermaphrodite, which has both male and female sex organs so could mate with anything that slithers by (perhaps even itself...).

Chickens are not as ecologically destructive as predators such as snakes and rats and even goats, though I don't care for any type of non-native, invasive animal on an island. It doesn't take long to throw everything into imbalance.

[goat]

Originally Posted by gamayun

You must mean sterile and not hermaphrodite, which has both male and female sex organs so could mate with anything that slithers by (perhaps even itself...).

Chickens are not as ecologically destructive as predators such as snakes and rats and even goats, though I don't care for any type of non-native, invasive animal on an island. It doesn't take long to throw everything into imbalance.

Easy now....

[jwcolby54]

Originally Posted by gamayun

You must mean sterile and not hermaphrodite, which has both male and female sex organs so could mate with anything that slithers by (perhaps even itself...).

Chickens are not as ecologically destructive as predators such as snakes and rats and even goats, though I don't care for any type of non-native, invasive animal on an island. It doesn't take long to throw everything into imbalance.

Uhhh... so what exactly is native to an island? Everything came from somewhere else. "Non-native" is just the last to arrive.

Not to make lite of a pest.

[Jim Cate]

Chickens are not as ecologically destructive as predators such as snakes and rats and even goats, though I don't care for any type of non-native, invasive animal on an island. It doesn't take long to throw everything into imbalance.

The most destructive and hardest to eliminate is... the human being, hands down.

Something that I have unsuccessfully pointed out to rabid "get rid of non-native species in Oz" folks... you know, the ones that wanted to get rid of the coconut palms on Middle Percy Island.

Jim

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by jwcolby54

Uhhh... so what exactly is native to an island? Everything came from somewhere else. "Non-native" is just the last to arrive.

Not to make lite of a pest.

This is well established in the scientific literature. See: Non-Native Species of the IRL Region for a comprehensive explanation and cites.

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by goat

Easy now....

Sorry goat, but every time I go to the Caribbean where they are nibbling down to twigs every bit of shrubbery except for the meanest plants with spines, and I see them listed on the menu, I always order that instead of the fish....

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

The most destructive and hardest to eliminate is... the human being, hands down.

Something that I have unsuccessfully pointed out to rabid "get rid of non-native species in Oz" folks... you know, the ones that wanted to get rid of the coconut palms on Middle Percy Island.

Jim

I'm not against this either

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by gamayun

You must mean sterile and not hermaphrodite, which has both male and female sex organs so could mate with anything that slithers by (perhaps even itself...).

Chickens are not as ecologically destructive as predators such as snakes and rats and even goats, though I don't care for any type of non-native, invasive animal on an island. It doesn't take long to throw everything into imbalance.

Being silly about hermorphidite snakes(hemorphodites are sterile?right?) my point about the chickens was that it takes some effort to climb trees catch birds and eat the native birds eggs, wherein it would be easy to eat baby chickens and find there eggs..Yet there are chickens every where but no native birds..I would have thought that the tree snake would have adapted to this "easy pray" rather than continue to exert energy climbing trees etc..hope this make more sense than my other post..

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

..I would have thought that the tree snake would have adapted to this "easy pray" rather than continue to exert energy climbing trees etc..hope this make more sense than my other post..

It probably did (though they don't call them "tree snakes" because they look like trees) and the chickens would continue to breed like, um, invasive chickens do. Native animals that have never been preyed upon basically don't have that kind of resiliency so once you start killing them off, all that's left are going to be chickens. I'm just pointing out that it kinda sucks to go to a remote tropical island and have squawking chickens and goats, and tourists sitting around the pool with their Mai Tais, as the only remaining fauna...