Rabbits and rats are posing a severe threat to World Heritage values on Macquarie Island, as research reveals widespread damage to terrestrial ecosystems. This includes destruction of vegetation (habitat for threatened albatross species and other seabirds), and catastrophic erosion.
Erosion and heavy spring rains have caused a large landslip on Macquarie Island, in the Southern Ocean about 1500 kilometres south-east of Tasmania, killing penguins in an important colony.
Rabbits blamed for penguin deaths in landslide
The finer details of introducing dogs to rid a sub Antarctic island of rodents are still be worked through.
Macquarie Island dog plan still in the works
Turnbull to the rescue:
MEDIA RELEASE
The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources
T76 /07
4 June 2007
AGREEMENT TO ERADICATE RABBITS ON MACQUARIE ISLAND
The Australian and Tasmanian Governments have today reached an agreement to jointly fund the eradication of rodent pests on Macquarie Island to protect its World Heritage values.
The seabird populations and vegetation of the Island are under serious threat from plagues of rabbits, rats and mice.
Following from discussions between our Governments, I am please to announce that we have agreed in principle to provide funding of $24.6 million in equal shares to implement the Plan for the Eradication of Rabbits and Rodents on Subantarctic Macquarie Island.
The Prime Minister has today written to the Premier Lennon confirming the agreement under which the Australian and Tasmanian Governments will provide $12.3 million each to implement the eradication plan.
As Macquarie Island is part of Tasmania, the plan will be implemented by the Tasmanian Government, which will also meet any costs in excess of $24.6 million agreed funding.
The Australian Government funding is conditional on the eradication being managed by a joint Government steering committee supported by a scientific advisory committee.
As it takes two years for the for specialised training of dogs to hunt rabbits without impacting on the wildlife, our Governments have agreed that Tasmania will let contracts for this training and commence all other long-lead work immediately.
The Australian Government provided funding for the development of the eradication plan and in addition will continue to provide $1.6 million per year to support Tasmanian rangers who manage the nature reserve.
Macquarie Island was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997 on the basis of its outstanding natural universal values:
• as an outstanding example representing major stages of the earth’s evolutionary history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features; and
• containing superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.
Macquarie Island is situated about 1500 km south-south-east of Tasmania, about half way between Tasmania and Antarctica at around 55 degrees south. The main island is approximately 34 km long and 5.5 km wide at its broadest point.
Media contact: (02) 6277 7640 – Minister’s office.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
One would hope these dogs have passed incredibly strict quarantine tests to ensure there is no possibility of disease transmission into this environment. Huskies were removed from Antarctica in part due to the possibility of a canine distemper outbreak.
Had there been an effective and consistent management plan (=funded) over the previous years, rabbits may not be in such proportions as to cause so much erosion.
Raoul Island in the NZ Kermadecs was rid of rats which threatened nesting seabird colonies and rare endemic plants. This was done by a dedicated work team and adequate funding, despite being a challenging environment for DOC’s workers to labour in.
Somehow I can see huge problems with using dogs on Macquarie.
The mice and rat problem seems very serious.
The killer mice eat the albatross and other sea bird chicks alive. They don’t kill their prey immediately but eat from wounds so it takes some days for the chick to die.Very nasty !
The Macquarie Island banded rail and Macquarie Island red-crowned parakeet (both endemic to Macquarie Island) were both last seen around 1880. Their demise is attributed to cats and other introduced animals like wekas, rats, mice and rabbits.
About 6 comments deleted from this thread as they were off topic and/or offensive.
New Zealand experience on such eradication programs was that it costs about the same amount to eradicate the last 1% as it did to eradicate the first 99%. So just hope the bean counters don’t get in the way.
Please demolish this suggestion as you please, but I must make it.
The timely and seasonal injection of some foxes.
Sterilised of course!
Could munch a few endangered seabirds, penguins and their chicks. Why chase bunnies?
Sorry Pragmatic, but foxes are not a wise suggestion. As Luke points out, seabird chicks would be easier and possibly tastier than bunnies. It could be a disaster, also likely causing some panic amongst birds like penguins which stampede, not being used to swift terrestrial carnivores. Foxes are also ‘surplus killers’. The captive penguin colony I worked with was decimated by a fox which barely ate a portion, just killed and maimed about 15 birds.
Regarding stampedes, penguins and aircraft at MI:
“Concerns were expressed over the potential impacts of aircraft on Antarctic wildlife when approximately 7000 king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), mostly chicks, died by asphyxiation when a stampede occurred
on Macquarie Island on or around 30 May 1990 (Rounsevell and Binns, 1991; Cooper et al., 1994). The deaths occurred when large numbers of fleeing birds piled up on each other against a natural barrier at one edge of the colony. The stampede itself was not witnessed and the
dead birds, piled up to 10 deep, were discovered around 10–12 days after the event.
Coincidentally, an overflight by a C-130 Hercules aircraft had occurred on 30 May
1990 approximately one nautical mile out to sea from the colony at 250 m elevation. While subsequent inquiries could not definitively attribute the cause of the stampede to the overflight, it was concluded that ‘a major
sustained disturbance’ was the most probable explanation.In the absence of any other known disturbance of such magnitude, it was concluded that the approach of the large aircraft at low altitude was the most likely factor (Rounsevell and Binns, 1991).
Have to agree with Libby about foxes, but for a different reason. Foxes go for the easiest feed around. Nesting or roosting birds would usually be an easier meal than rabbits.
Any fox tempted by the endemic cuisine could be taken out. I would see it as a time delimited exercise, away from roosting and fledging periods.
Um…sorry Pragmatic but how do you know if the fox is tempted by the exotic cuisine unless you are watching it day and night (being primarily nocturnal hunters and MI being an incredibly difficult place for humans to negotiate in daylight hours let alone night)? How do you know which fox has taken out some sea birds unless you have seen it? Foxes are cat-like in nature, and look what they managed to do – cats killed some 26,000 Antarctic prions a year. How do you justify the project once some unintended killing has taken place? Some birds nest in burrows, like rabbits do, and even nest in rabbit burrows. How do you expect a fox to disciminate?
I haven’t been to Macq I. so cannot know about oversight problems.
Is there a window of opportunity available when rookeries are deserted? I would assume continuous surveillance, overlooking rookeries.
And is a mere gunshot in that situation capable of causing mass deaths through trampling?
Hi Pragmatic,
As far as I could gather from a brief scan through my books, there is a bit of overlap with breeding. Most of the birds breed during the austral spring and summer, but king penguins still have chicks through to late autumn, and the burrowing blue petrels seem to be found throughout the year.
I wouldn’t have thought gun shot would cause a stampede if things were carried out properly. Shooters have been on the island trying to eradicate pests for years.
The island is very steep, it rains for all but about 4 days a year, the winds are merciless, and it takes a lot of effort to go from one part of the island to the other, even though it is not that big.
They have introduced myxomatosis in the past, but with the same results the rest of Australia has witnessed – rabbits still persist.
This is a very good thread, thanks Luke!
Why not use mousetraps , strategically placed?
Maybe some kind of traps for rabbits as well???
If you lived in Tasmania, you might have seen on television this week the rabid attacks by TCA on the Greens. Their TV spots showed a close affinity with Family First.
Perhaps the TCA executive could be deposited on MacQuarie Island and left to fend for themselves. The bunny population would be decimated.
Off topic I know, but this video highlights some of their stuff.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2zxAtyvP9-o&feature=related