10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2014

You’ve no doubt heard about birds being put at risk by nonnative cats, rats, and even goats. Yes, that’s what’s happening at Midway Atoll, a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). But plants?

Albatross 185

Albatross Goats United States Japan 185

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2013

This is how he ended up living on Nonsuch, an island on which every tree had been felled, all grass eaten by goats, which had formerly been home to a yellow fever hospital and a reform school. Wingate decided that the birds needed Bermuda’s ecology as it was 300 years ago, and he was going to create it for them.

Birds 164

Birds Rats Breeding 2012 164

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2012

Getting rid of rabbits and goats was something that had been done for many years, but it was generally thought that rats and cats would be impossible to remove from all but the smallest islands. Hit the rats hard and quick in a single hit. The other obvious solution was to make more predator-free islands.

New Zealand 172

New Zealand Rats Mammals Possums 172

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2014

Keep cats outdoors? Sure, we try not to introduce snakes, rats, cats, goats, pigs, and a host of other creatures to isolated islands. Fly in airplanes? Drink coffee? What right do we have to even exist when our very existence as humanity is what has caused a rate of extinction not seen except during cataclysmic events?

Mauritius 171

Mauritius Djibouti Guam Birds 171

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2013

Humans, and the rats, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, snakes, mosquitos and disease they bring with them have wiped out species after species on islands. The common story on its demise was that it was wiped out by a single cat, a lighthouse keeper’s cat named Tibbles. The eggs took in one of those cats.

Feral Cats 191

Feral Cats Eggs Cats Feral 191