Rats! Stadium goes indigenous
Native species will oust harmful aliens
SPORTS fans visiting Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium may think they smell a rat – and they would be completely right. This is because the first vlei rat was released back into the area yesterday as conservation and pest control go hand in hand in a new project.
This comes after the stadium undertook to reintroduce indigenous rodents to the gardens around the World Cup structure.
The stadium, with the help of Wildline and the Urban Raptor Project, aims to reintroduce vlei rats and Karoo bush rats in a bid to rid the area of exotic rodents like house rats and brown rats.
They also hope to cultivate an ecosystem that sustains natural predators.
The vlei rat released yesterday immediately fled into the dense and thorny noemnoem bushes that grow in the gardens around the stadium.
“We were hoping to release a large number of vlei rats and bush rats at the same time, but due to the weather we have had trouble trapping many of them.
“So for now we are releasing just the one and will keep an eye on him to see how he likes his new home,” Wildline’s Arnold Slabbert said.
Vlei and bush rats used to thrive in the area around North End Lake before development and construction began, he said.
“Long before the stadium or any of the buildings around the lake came, the indigenous rats lived in bushes and reeds, feeding mostly on plants and seeds.
“These rats avoid buildings and seldom leave the vegetation where they nest.”
However, as development progressed, exotic rodents, originally from Asia, that thrive in built-up areas and feed on rubbish and other human waste, moved into the area.
Businesses and households around the lake started putting out poison to combat the rats on their premises, not knowing the damage it caused to indigenous species.
“The indigenous rats have no immunity to the poisons people put out, and die very quickly. The exotic rats have developed a higher tolerance for rodenticides and live long enough with poison in their systems for predators, like owls and other birds of prey, to catch them.
“The poison kills not only the rat, but the birds as well.”
Since opening its doors, and even during construction in 2008, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and Urban Raptor Project have focused on natural pest control by using predatory birds rather than poisons, and have had a good relationship.
Stadium facilities manager Lohan Geel is excited that releasing the indigenous rodents around the stadium could aid the stadium’s natural approach to pest control.
“The reintroduction of indigenous rats will create competition for exotic rats.
“By populating the dense noem-noem bushes and reeds around the stadium, the [indigenous] rats will drive the pests away,” Geel said.
He said the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was admired around the world for its effective waste-management and pest-control methods.
Slabbert said the goal was to create a natural ecosystem.