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Alaska's Rat Island Rat-Free After 229 Years
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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
Alaska's Rat Island has finally become rat-less again nearly 230 years after a Japanese ship wreck sent its vermin scurrying onto the island. The rats eliminated all but the biggest native birds. Now, the Fish and Wildlife Service and conservation groups have reclaimed the island by poisoning all the rats -they hope - rats are pretty resilient. So far birds, including Aleutian cackling geese and black oystercatchers are nesting once again.
It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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