What impact are rats having on Rat Island?
Rats are voracious predators on birds, chicks and eggs. Introduced non-native rats have been responsible for about half of all recorded bird extinctions globally. On Rat Island, they have eliminated virtually all seabirds and many other birds. There are no native land mammals on Rat Island so the birds had no natural defenses against these aggressive predators. Also, on the treeless Aleutians, birds must nest on the ground, in burrows or on cliffs and most of these nesting sites are easily accessible to rats. Because rats are omnivores that will feed on almost anything, they have also affected other components of the island’s ecosystem such as plants and intertidal organisms.
