Alaska's Rat Island rat-free after 229 years - Yahoo! News

I realize they're alien to the island, originally, however...after living and breeding there for countless generations over 229 years, wouldn't it be safe to say they're part of the island makeup now?

Reading this reminded me of Star Trek Insurrection, where Picard and co. save the Ba'ku (an foreign race on a planet that wasn't their's to begin with) and how the Federation was basically violating the Prime Directive, and the people's right to live.

Well, isn't this really the same thing?

I don't know, I'm not a conservationist, so I can't say in all honesty whether or not this is the right course of action, but dumping buckets of deadly poison to kill off the creatures just seems so terribly inhumane.

Especially when it wasn't their fault they were marooned on an island far from their homeland. It's just an animal, it's not like they collectively got up one morning and said "Land ho! We'll take that one, by jove!"

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't feel right. Not one bit.

 

they are rats.. plenty more where they came from..


Now if they could figure out what do with the starlings in the US, and cane tones, cats, rabbits and foxes that have taken over australia..... not to mention the snake head fish..

 

Eh fair is fair. Birds died, now the rats died.

 

It's ridiculous that government money was spent on this. If it was "Fluffy Bunny Island", it never would have happened.

 

they should've just let nature take it's course and not interfere and waste money

 

poor rats.......

 

Yes, with all the other things they could be spending money on, someone thought it was a good idea to spend money on killing rats on an island no one really cares about!

 

well the rats were not a native species to the island and needed to be removed, I wish they could have done so with out killing them but its done and the birds can return to there rightful home, and if you want to know what kind of damage non native species can do ask the Austrailians about rabbits

 

Understood, but why wait 229 years? What, were they bored and said, Hey let's go kill the rats on RAT ISLAND!

 

Nature was running its course just fine before that human boat crashed and spilled all those rats on that island.

More like "Oh shit, these birds that are an important part of the ecosystem are dying off, and refuse to nest anywhere but these really annoying locations. Why? Oh, we dumped rats onto their nesting grounds 200 years ago. We... should probably take care of that."

As unfortunate as it is that these rats were wiped out, especially given the expenditure required to do so, I could understand the importance of preserving the natural ecosystem, if this island was an important nesting/breeding ground for the numerous species of birds who migrate to the arctic.

It could also be the case that providing these birds with a nesting ground like this island (which they used before the rats were there) will provide rare species with an alternative to nesting closer to human settlements, eliminating the problems that that causes.

 

no idea why so long, for most of thattime period it was no one giving a rat's ass ( sorry about the pun) and more recently it was getting attention to the problem and getting funding for the efforts to get rid of the rats

 

I'm not against it, it just seems random that they waited all this time.

 

Its random world lol like i said there could be many factors that lead for it to take so long, for the most part for more than a 100 years no one likely cared about the rats then later as the envitomental movement took root people took note of the effects the rats had onthe island and began to try to get something done about them, and it took until now to get the job done

 

So, can't really call it rat island any more. Wonder what the new name is?

 

Rats were there because of humans (accidentally). Now humans are getting rid of them. I see nothing wrong with that.

This "island makeup" you speak of is due to human involvement. So by that sense, humans getting rid of them shouldn't be a problem. Same thing, but reverse.

 

This, seriously and if that's not enough guys this is a learning experiment on the subject of invasive species removal. Do it somewhere harmless like alaska then go on and do it somewhere like hawaii when the process is improved.

 

Rabbits would devastate the vegetation. If it's a pest, get rid of it.

 

I wonder what effect the indiscriminately dumped poison is going to have on the environment of the island and the birds they were looking to save, not to mention in whatever fed on the bodies of the rats.

--Moony

 

^^^ humans never give much thought into things. look at mtv for example.

 

Yep. And DDT, cane toads...lead...

--Moony