Great news from the Caribbean: a
major rat eradication project appears to have been successful. Dog Island is the largest of Anguilla's offshore cays. I spent several nights camping there seven years ago, part of a small team surveying seabirds and rats. Our work helped to make the case for the eradication of the rats - they were having quite an impact on nesting seabirds. Our survey work back in 2007 also showed that the colony of sooty terns was probably the largest in the Caribbean, so important to make sure they were not endangered by the rats. There are also goats on the island, which have grazed the island scrub vegetation to such an extent that thorny scrub predominates. This made our survey work, and no doubt the rat eradication a bit hazardous too.
This is also an opportunity to show you a few of pics mine from back then. A wonderful, wild place.
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| bridled tern |
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| Dog island view |
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| masked booby family |
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| red-billed tropicbird with young chick - note very long tail bent around |
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