Photo Credit: Finlay Cox. Retrieved from rnz.co.nz
A remote coral atoll about 400km away from the Cook Islands capital Rarotonga, with a population of under 50 people, is on a mission to eradicate rats on the island by the end of this year.
Palmerston Island is one of the most isolated of the 15 islands that make up Cook Islands, better known for its picture-perfect white sandy beaches and pristine natural environment.
But the island’s residents are having to put up with tiny rodents that they say have become a “nuisance”.
“Rats are a problem on Home Island (the islet that is occupied by people),” Palmerston’s executive officer Arthur Neale said.
“They have been a nuisance. They damage our crops, coconuts, fruit trees. So you’re always battling the rats.”
In 2018, the Palmerston Island council commissioned a natural resources study that showed there was very little birdlife where rats were present.
Neale said rats have become a “menace” and threaten the “community and the ecosystem”.
He said that is why the Palmerston Island community has sought assistance from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and other local organisations, who have now band together to rollout a full scale rat eradication project expected to kick off by June.