LONDON — The tiny Scottish isle of Canna has successfully eradicated the island’s rat population after a three-year campaign to protect the island’s seabirds from the rodents, environmental officials said Saturday.
The island’s soaring cliffs are ideal nesting grounds and host about 15,000 seabirds from 14 species, according to the National Trust for Scotland, which manages Canna.
In 2005, the trust brought pest-eradication experts from New Zealand. Working with volunteers, they laid 4,388 traps out in a carefully plotted grid across the 5-mile-long island. About 25 tons of rodenticide were shipped in to arm the traps.
With no confirmed rat sightings in more than two years, British Environment Minister Mike Russell declared the island “officially rat-free.”
