Cats, Birds, and Ascension Island

Feral Cats on Islands Quickly Wipe Out Birds, but on Islands, Feral Cats Can be Eradicated.

Jan 27, 2007 Rosemary Drisdelle

Ascension Island is a critical breeding place for seabirds. Feral cats nearly destroyed that, but now the cats have been eradicated.

On November 26, 2006, the people of Ascension Island celebrated. They celebrated the fact that their island has been officially declared free of feral cats after an eradication project lasting six years. To assist the project, islanders had their domestic cats sterilized, registered, and microchipped—and they agreed not to stand in the way of humane disposal of the estimated 600-800 feral cats on the island.

The history of feral cats on Ascension Island

Ascension Island is in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is about 91 sq km (35 sq mi). It was often used by the British as a military base and has been inhabited since 1815; cats arrived at the same time, deliberately introduced to control the rats that had come to the island on ships.

The birds of Ascension Island

When the cats arrived, there were about 20 million seabirds breeding on Ascension Island. By 2000, however, the cats and the rats had done their worst. The seabird colonies were gone from the island with only about 400,000 birds nesting on small offshore islands were the predators could not reach them. Two species of land birds, the flightless Ascension Rail and a night heron, were driven to extinction while the Ascension Frigatebird, which breeds nowhere else, is listed as globally threatened.

The Seabird Restoration Project

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) teamed up with the Ascension Island government to eradicate feral cats on the island. No feral cats have been seen on Ascension Island since February of 2004 and, thankfully, the birds that survive are beginning to return. Masked Boobies, Red-billed Tropicbirds and Brown Noddies, as well as several other species, are nesting again on the main island – more than 725 pairs of them.

Ascension Island makes history as the first island where people kept their domestic cats while feral cats were eradicated.

Sources:

Wikipedia. “Ascension Island.”

Ascension Island Government. “Seabird Restoration Project.”

Ascension Conservation. “Seabird Restoration Project (RSPB Funded).”

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