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9Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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An Albatross attacked by mice
Introduced, Non Native Species
Mice are attacking and eventually killing adult albatrosses on Marion Island which is located about halfway between South Africa and Antarctica. For decades, mice have been chowing down on native invertebrates and the chicks of many seabirds that breed there. But the newest discovery is the first time they've been documented attacking adult albatrosses on the island. At 115 square miles Marion Island is about half the size of Chicago but is home to a remarkable assortment of wildlife, including king penguins, elephant seals and seabirds like wandering albatrosses, one of the world's largest flying birds. The island wasn't home to any non-marine mammals until about the 19th century, when mice were introduced by humans via ships. Like usual humans introduced destructive species into fragile systems, which are being wiped out from rat, mice, cats. Mice have annihilated many of the invertebrates and plant species that live there. But in recent decades, the mouse population has boomed, as a result of warmer and drier weather due to climate change. This is a real issue and scientists are worried. In 2003, researchers discovered that the mice had started eating the chicks of wandering albatrosses on the island. Now these mice are attacking and later eating the adult sea birds, the birds deaths could have been due to infection from the mouse bites or even starvation if the birds were too injured to go out to sea and find food. As the mouse population grows so does their ravenous appetites. These mice are like locus, devouring everything in sight. Albatrosses may be big with their 10-foot wingspan, but these birds have evolved to live on islands without any mammal type predators, and have no defense mechanisms against the invasive rodents. They don’t know how to defend their selves against these aggressive rodents. The mouse trouble does not only happen on this island but on Midway Atoll as well. Mice have recently been seen attacking adult albatrosses in other seabird colonies, such as the Tristan albatrosses on Gough Island in the South Atlantic and Laysan albatrosses on Midway Atoll in the Pacific. That's a troubling trend for this threatened group of birds. Of the 22 species of albatross worldwide, nine are listed as endangered or critically endangered. But there is help on the way, action is being taken to save the birds, On Marion Island, there's a plan to fight back. The Mouse-Free Marion Project is planning to spread rodenticide all over the island, which everyone hopes will kill off all the mice. The local native seabirds typically look for food in the ocean, and the native invertebrates aren't affected by rodenticide, so this project would only target the invasive mice. Hopefully the plan is successful, then the Marion Island inhabitants can recover from the filthy mice. If this plan is successful hopefully it will be initiated to be used on the other islands. Rats, mice, cats, goats which have been introduced to other islands throughout the world have caused the extinction of many species. Goats for example were killing off tortoises. To save tortoises from extinction, Proyecto Isabela killed more than two hundred thousand goats on the Galápagos Islands in the largest mammal eradication campaign in the world. Then native vegetation could recover for the tortoises to eat. Because the goats ate all the trees, bushes, grasses and ruined the shade and water supply’s that the giant tortoises’ depended on. The population of these giants were reduced to a fraction. Now they have a chance to recover and flourish as nature intended.
Tammy
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