Humans introduced mice to Marion Island in the Indian Ocean, just southeast of South Africa, back in the 1800s. The mice run the joint now and have for well over a century. They are a predator that preys on the island’s seabirds, especially the island’s albatross population.
It’s a shame because the island is home to a quarter of the world’s wandering albatrosses, which have the largest wingspan of any bird alive today. Its population has been devastated by the mice.
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The organizers of the Mouse-Free Marion Project hope to change that by “bombing” the ever-loving shit out of the island’s mouse population. The joint project put together by the South African government and an organization called Birdlife South Africa plans to drop 600 tons of rodent-killing pellets across the island using helicopters.
The plan is set to go into effect in 2027. It’ll cost around $29 million, but officials deem it money that will be well spent if it means protecting the wandering albatross and their eggs from a violent and bloodthirsty mouse population.
If you’re worried about the birds eating the rodent-killing pellets, officials plan to launch the bombing operation during the winter when the birds are away and the mice are starving.
The rodent population on Marion Island has exploded by 500% in the past 30 years. Birds are getting beaten, bloodied, and overwhelmed by the hyper-violent mice. If nothing is done about it, scientists say 19 of the 29 seabird species that use that island for breeding could go extinct.
Even climate change plays a role in all this. The longer periods of warmer temperatures mean that mouse breeding season lasts longer, thus creating more of the little demons.
We can only hope this attempt at eradicating the rodents goes better than some other attempts, like in 1948 when researchers brought five cats to the island to control the mice. As the generations of cats went on, they went feral and started attacking the birds, too. It’s cartoon logic blown up to a massive scale.
