Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Probably not a popular vacation destination

I wonder where the animal rights wackos come down on this one:
Two centuries after rats first landed on a remote Aleutian island from a shipwreck, wildlife managers in Alaska are plotting how to evict the non-native rodent from the island that bears their name.

Rat Island, like many other treeless, volcanic islands in the 1,000-mile (1,609-km) long Aleutian chain, is infested with rats that have proved devastating to wild birds that build nests in the earth or in rocky cliffs.

"They pretty much made the island worthless for a lot of wildlife," said Art Sowls, a biologist with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which sprawls across the Aleutians and other Alaska islands.

Rodents have reigned at Rat Island at the western end of the Aleutians since the 1780 shipwreck of a Japanese sailing ship, wreaking havoc on millions of seabirds with no natural defenses against land predators.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Maritime refuge, is drawing up plans to wipe out Rat Island's rats. A formal proposal is expected in about a month, according to Sowls.
Well, on the one hand, you've got rats, which are animals, yes, but not very lovable. Then, you've got the wild birds, which are probably endangered or something. A no-brainer for the rest of us, but you've got to wonder about the folks at PETA. Will they be chaining themselves to Rat Island for a big "Save the Rats" protest?

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