Visiting a seabird colony? Check your bags for stowaway rats first
‘Seabird populations such as shearwaters, puffins, terns and storm petrels are in serious trouble’
DAY-TRIPPERS travelling to seabird colonies are being urged to check their bags for rats, mink and stoats over fears they may be inadvertently importing deadly predators.
The National Trust and the RSPB have launched a new £700,000 campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of invasive animals.
In the past, colonies of birds such as puffins, Manx shearwater and storm petrels have been devastated by rodents that have been accidentally brought to remote islands by human activity.
On Canna, off the west coast of Scotland, Manx shearwater numbers fell to just two pairs by the Seventies after a shipwreck brought brown rats to the island. On St Agnes and Gugh in the Scilly Isles, Manx shearwater had attempted to nest for decades but no chicks have been seen in living memory because of the population of brown rats, which were recently removed.
Under the new campaign, boat owners will be encouraged to check their boats, cargo and baggage for stowaways, while day-trippers are being asked to search their bags and keep any food in animal-proof containers.
The National Trust said that fieldworkers surveying in Scotland had recently discovered a rat in their bag on the mainland, which could easily have been transported further afield.
The new four-year Biosecurity for LIFE project will work with island managers, conservation organisations, island communities and the marine industry to improve biosecurity on important islands.
Tom Churchyard, the project manager, said: “Putting good biosecurity measures in place for seabird islands will reduce the risk of new predators arriving and having a negative impact on breeding birds. This threat is often underestimated and effective biosecurity can be expensive.
“To date, very few of the UK’S internationally important seabird islands have any protection against the arrival of new predators. New incidences are reported every year from islands around the UK.”
The UK is home to an estimated eight million breeding seabirds, with up to half of the European populations of breeding on islands including the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland, Grassholm off the Welsh coast, Copeland in Northern Ireland and Foula, off the coast of Scotland.
Dr David Bullock, head of species and habitat conservation at the trust, said: “It’s vital that the UK addresses this acute seabird conservation issue. Many of the UK’S incredibly important seabird populations such as shearwaters, puffins, terns and storm petrels are in serious trouble and their colonies have to be free from disturbance in order to breed successfully. We need to do all we can to help them.”