Canna declared rat-free

Canna, the National Trust for Scotland’s island property, will be officially declared rat-free during a visit by Environment Minister Mike Russell today (Saturday 7 June).

Canna, the National Trust for Scotland’s island property, will be officially declared rat-free during a visit by Environment Minister Mike Russell today (Saturday 7 June).

The Minister is on Canna as the conservation charity’s three-year programme to conserve the island’s internationally important seabird population through the eradication of rats draws to a successful conclusion.

The last confirmed rat sighting was in February 2006. Now that two years have passed since that last sighting, the island can officially be labelled rat-free.

Environment Minister Mike Russell said:

“Rats, while being fairly innocuous creatures in their natural environment, can have a devastating impact in a fragile ecosystem such as that of Canna.

“I am delighted to see the island declared officially rat-free and look forward to seeing its seabird population flourish.”

Richard Luxmoore, Senior Nature Conservation Adviser with the Trust, said:

“Canna is such an important habitat for seabirds in Scotland that we simply had to act to protect this important site and give our seabirds every chance to thrive.

“Seabirds face so many threats from nature and man and need our help and protection. As a conservation charity, we had to remove the threat of predation from rats which we hope will boost bird numbers in the long term. The seabirds are being monitored over this summer to see just what impact our efforts have had, but already things are looking good. We have already had the first recorded breeding of Manx shearwaters for over ten years.”

The project to protect Canna’s internationally important seabird colonies began in 2005, after several years of research by the conservation charity which decided it must act to prevent the decline of bird populations. Rats were eating the eggs and chicks of ground-nesting seabirds and this was seriously affecting their numbers.

The island’s entire rat population, estimated to have been up to 10,000, was trapped and poisoned throughout the project, using specialist knowledge of New Zealand experts, Trust staff and a large team of volunteers.

Wax blocks, impregnated with poison, were used to kill the rats in 4,200 bait stations set up across the island. Each station was checked twice a week. Two years of intensive monitoring has now confirmed that every last rat is dead.

During the work to eradicate rats, steps also had to be taken to preserve a population of distinctive Canna fieldmice. Project partners, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) captured and kept a population of mice at Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park for the duration of the project. Their studies have shown that the mouse population has returned to thriving condition since the project.

The project to protect Canna’s seabirds cost less than its estimated £500,000 and was funded by the European LIFE Nature fund, Scottish Natural Heritage and the National Trust for Scotland.