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posted by cmn32480 on Monday August 01 2016, @06:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-not-un-possum-ble dept.

New Zealand will attempt to eradicate rats and other unwanted predators by 2050:

An isolated archipelago, New Zealand once hosted almost 200 bird species, many of them, like the iconic kiwi, having become flightless over generations because of a lack of natural predators. But several recently introduced species, such as rats, possums, and weasellike carnivores called stoats, now kill about 25 million of these native birds every year. Yesterday, the country's prime minister, John Key, announced a $20 million commitment of seed money to set up Predator Free New Zealand Ltd., a company that would lead the charge in ridding the nation of the three mammals and five other foreign predators by 2050. Until now, similar eradication efforts by the country have focused on small islands; those efforts boast a 90% success rate in eliminating rodents, says James Russell, a conservation biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The new goal, Russell says, is "the modern equivalent to landing someone on Mars" and will ultimately require new technologies and billions of dollars to succeed. But he is optimistic because local communities and organizations, which could foot a large portion of the total bill, are on board.

[...] Also, once eliminated, rats will likely keep coming back in, Merrill notes. "They can do it if they can prevent the rats from jumping off the boats," he predicts. Russell says that's doable. "We are currently close to a 100% success rate in intercepting new mammal arrivals on the islands." New Zealand's track record on its smaller islands bodes well, Martin says. "This challenge is of mind-blowing proportions, but if anyone can do it, the New Zealanders can."


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 01 2016, @12:08PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday August 01 2016, @12:08PM (#382586) Journal

    I put the last paragraph in the summary for a reason:

    "We are currently close to a 100% success rate in intercepting new mammal arrivals on the islands."

    Do we believe this? Maybe. I think the rate could rise from say, 98% to 99.9% by implementing advanced scanning technologies. I'm not talking about what exists now, but what is available around 2050. It would probably be a better reason to spend the money than cargo ship anti-terrorism (explosives detection, etc). There may even be some overlap.

    Some rats and other critters inevitably make it through the port. That's where the (rat?) surveillance program comes in:

    Other areas of the world have become or stayed rat-free or close to it, says Phil Merrill, a conservation biologist with the Alberta Agriculture and Forestry ministry in Lethbridge, Canada. In the 1950s, this western province organized a rat surveillance program that has prevented rodents from neighboring provinces and the United States from settling in, allowing it to boast of a rat-free status. Rats invaded the neighboring Saskatchewan in the 1930s, and for the past 50 years, that province has been trying to get rid of them, recently with increasing success, Merrill says. Farmers in this northern, colder region have a higher standard of living than in the past, enabling them to keep their livestock indoors and build barns, silos, and other structures out of steel and cement instead of wood. As a result, there’s much less ideal rat habitat, he notes, and Saskatchewan “is finally winning” against these invaders.

    Stop snitching! Err... I mean, sure, this program might work better in Canada than New Zealand because of the climate, but at least it is another layer of defense. Again, it is likely to be improved by the low-cost sensors available by 2050.

    A program that can help safeguard both tourism and agriculture is probably a good idea.

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