Seabirds recover after rats culled

One of Britain’s most at-risk seabirds has hit a new population high on one of its last strongholds – after swarms of hungry rats were exterminated.

The rodents were raiding the nests of Manx shearwaters on Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire, eating their eggs and chicks, but now the RSPB says that numbers breeding on the island has reached record levels.

A total of 6,225 pairs were counted in this year’s survey, a 30 per cent increase on the 4,796 pairs in 2016.

“The recovery of Manx shearwater on Ramsey Island is thanks to a rat eradication programme carried out in 1999 to 2000,” said the bird charity.

“Brown rats arrived on Ramsey in the 1800s via shipwrecks, decimating the island’s breeding puffins and Manx shearwaters. By the time the RSPB bought the island in 1992, the puffins had long been extinct as a breeding species on Ramsey and the shearwaters were just clinging on.”*