Why have so many endemic species been lost from islands?
The main problems arise from exotic (introduced, non-native) plants, predators and herbivores. They have caused island extinctions in the following ways: • Predation. Introduced predators such as rats, cats, dogs, foxes and mongooses are thought to have been responsible for about half of island bird extinctions. Indigenous animals on islands are well known for their tame behavior, which makes them extremely vulnerable to predation by man and introduced predators. • Rats. Introduced predators responsible for the largest number of extinctions are the Polynesian rat Rattus exulans carried across the Pacific by Polynesians and Micronesians and two other rat species, Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus, carried around the world by Europeans in the last 5 centuries. These rats often feed on eggs and chicks of ground-nesting birds. Introduced rats have exterminated bird species on 26 islands including catastrophic extinction waves that eliminated a large fraction of the native bird species wi
