Rat Island becomes rat free, and more

Alaska’s Rat Island, a 10-square-mile speck of land in the Aleutians that has been infested with rats since 1780, is now rat free.

Rat Island becomes rat free

After 229 years, Alaska’s Rat Island is rat free. The 10-square-mile speck of land in the Aleutians has been infested with rats since 1780, when a Japanese shipwreck spilled them there. But last fall, at a cost of $2.5 million, the federal government and two wildlife groups joined forces to bombard the island with poison. Since then, there has been no sign of the rodents, and several of the bird species they had devastated have begun to return. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will continue to monitor Rat Island for vermin for at least two more years.

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