Tasmania : Poisioning Macquarie Island.

Super poison heads to Macquarie Island
Posted Sat May 22, 2010 10:31am AEST

The Tasmanian government's animal welfare advisers have approved the use of a highly toxic poison to help eradicate rabbits on Macquarie Island.

The island, which lies about halfway between Australia and Antarctica, has been ravaged in recent years by an infestation of rabbits.

The poison approved by the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee is called Brodifacoum and it is currently under review by the Federal Government's pesticides authority due to environmental concerns.

Head of the committee Professor Rob White told ABC's Stateline program it was a difficult decision given that some native wildlife are almost certain to suffer secondary poisoning.

"Our advice to the minister was for it to be used against rabbits on Macquarie Island only and for this year only and for this particular winter period," he said.

A continuing sad saga.

Several years ago the feral cat population on Macquarie Island was eradicated.

The cats had predated on the Macquarie Island birdlife.

The cats had also helped keep the rabbit population in check.

Anybody living there?

I didn't think so Moonbird,
yet IIRC wiki says 48 people?

Since 1948 the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has maintained a permanent base, the Macquarie Island Station, on the isthmus at the northern end of the island at the foot of Wireless Hill. The population of the base, the island's only human inhabitants, usually varies from 20 to 40 people over the year.

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An interesting illustration of how a delicate balance
is disturbed.

Rats and mice that were inadvertently introduced from the ships prospered due to lack of predators. Cats were subsequently introduced deliberately to keep the rodents from eating human food stores. In about 1870, rabbits were left on the island by sealers to breed for food. By the 1970s, the then 130,000 rabbits were causing tremendous damage to vegetation.

The feral cats introduced to the island have had a devastating effect on the native seabird population, with an estimated 60,000 seabird deaths per year. From 1985, efforts were undertaken to remove the cats. In June 2000, the last of the nearly 2500 cats were culled in an effort to save the seabirds.[10] Seabird populations responded rapidly,[11] but rats and rabbits continued to cause widespread environmental damage.

The rabbits rapidly multiplied before numbers were reduced to about 10,000 in the early 1980s when myxomatosis was introduced. Rabbit numbers have grown again to around 100,000 on the island.[12] The rodents feed on young chicks while rabbits nibbling on the grass layer has led to soil erosion and cliff collapses, destroying seabird nests. Large portions of the Macquarie Island bluffs are eroding as a result. In September 2006 a large landslip at Lusitania Bay, on the eastern side of the island, partially destroyed an important penguin breeding colony. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service attributed the landslip to a combination of heavy spring rains and severe erosion caused by rabbits.

Ah, the folly of humankind. No one foresaw the result of unintended consequences.

Little beetles were ruining the sugar cane crop in 1935. Idea Introduce cane toads to eat the beetles.

Fail, the beetles weren't eradicated

As of last year there were an estimated 200,000,000 cane toads in Australia. Whacking the pesky creations is a sport in Queensland.

Let's be careful eh?