daveymck
07-25-2005, 09:32 AM
Full Article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4708899.stm)
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41335000/jpg/_41335757_rump_rspb_203.jpg
Supersize" mice are eating seabird chicks alive on Gough Island, one of the most important seabird colonies in the world, UK conservationists report.
The rodents are taking out one million petrels, shearwaters and albatrosses each year on the UK Overseas Territory, in the South Atlantic.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says the mice infestation puts some species in danger of extinction.
It hopes to find ways to control or even eradicate the rodents.
The albatross chicks spend eight months sitting waiting for food from their parents.
They are nearly a metre tall and 250 times the weight of the mice but are largely immobile and cannot defend themselves.
The mice gnaw into the birds' flesh as they sit on the ground. Researchers have seen as many as eight or 10 rodents feasting on a single ailing chick.
It will turn around when under attack but cannot withstand such an assault.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41335000/jpg/_41335757_rump_rspb_203.jpg
Supersize" mice are eating seabird chicks alive on Gough Island, one of the most important seabird colonies in the world, UK conservationists report.
The rodents are taking out one million petrels, shearwaters and albatrosses each year on the UK Overseas Territory, in the South Atlantic.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says the mice infestation puts some species in danger of extinction.
It hopes to find ways to control or even eradicate the rodents.
The albatross chicks spend eight months sitting waiting for food from their parents.
They are nearly a metre tall and 250 times the weight of the mice but are largely immobile and cannot defend themselves.
The mice gnaw into the birds' flesh as they sit on the ground. Researchers have seen as many as eight or 10 rodents feasting on a single ailing chick.
It will turn around when under attack but cannot withstand such an assault.