A project costing nearly £1 million is being developed to get rid of a plague of rats from the Shiant Islands, five miles east of Harris.
Thousands of black rats -
The rodent cull which will get underway in late 2015 has been awarded almost £450,000 of European Union funding. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is providing £200,000 and the remainder of the cash will be raised from donations.
The Shiants are home to more than 150,000 seabirds that gather there to breed each year. The island group, is one of the most important seabird breeding sites in Europe. It supports 10% of the UK’s puffin population and 7% of the UK’s razorbills, and has been designated a Special Protection Area (SPA) for Wild Birds.
Once the rats have gone, it is hoped to attract the threatened Manx shearwater and European storm petrel species to the Shiants where there is an abundance of suitable habitat.
A significant challenge will be removing the non-
Studies show that they will eat seabird eggs and young chicks and their removal from islands has demonstrable benefits for breeding seabird populations.
Rats will be eradicated by laying poison in bait stations around the islands.
The Shiant Seabird Recovery Project is a partnership between RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Nicolson family, who have been the custodians of the Shiants for three generations.
