Puffins flourish on Bristol Channel island after rats are eradicated

‘The scale of this recovery has far exceeded what we expected’

SEABIRDS are thriving on an island in the Bristol Channel after a 15-year project eradicated rats from the island.

Puffins, Manx shearwaters and guillemots are all seeing their populations dramatically increase because of the project by the RSPB, Natural England and the National Trust.

The RSPB said the population of seabirds on Lundy has tripled to 21,000 birds, with the Manx shearwater population growing from 297 pairs to 5,504 and puffins increasing from just 13 birds to 375. The project, which was launched in 2002 by Natural England, the Landmark Trust, the National Trust and RSPB, aimed to eradicate the rats because they posed the biggest threat to the survival of the birds.

After four years, Lundy was declared rat free and seabird numbers have since been steadily rising.

Rodents are not native to the threemile (5km) long island; they were accidentally brought over on boats.

The RSPB says it is a problem it has to tackle on many of the islands it oversees.

Rats feed on the eggs and young of seabirds, especially ground-nesting species like puffins.

Rosie Hails, director of science and nature at the National Trust, said: “We were really concerned as previous records showed that puffin numbers on Lundy had plummeted from over 3,500 pairs in 1939 to fewer than 10 pairs in 2000.

“And although around 75 per cent of the global population of Manx shearwaters breed on UK islands, there were only 297 pairs on Lundy in 2001, way short of its potential.”

Helen Booker, senior conservation officer for RSPB in the South West of England, said: “This shows how quickly and positively seabirds respond to the removal of non-native predators.

“We anticipated major population increases when the project was launched, but the scale of this recovery has far exceeded our expectations.”

Lundy warden Dean Jones added: “In spring the island comes alive at night with the sound of these amazing birds. We are maintaining our vigilance to ensure rats cannot return to the island.”

The initiative was part of the Biosecurity for LIFE project to raise awareness of the risk to seabirds from predators such as rats, stoats and mink.

The UK is home to an estimated eight million breeding seabirds, with up to half of the EU populations of seabirds breeding here.