An island has been waging war on rats. They think they’ve finally won
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- RSPB Northern Ireland began a rat eradication campaign on Rathlin Island in 2023, deploying 7,000 bait stations at 50-metre intervals to target an estimated 10,000 rats on the 14-square-kilometre island.
- Poisoning began in September 2024 and the last rat was reportedly killed in June 2025; under the two-year rule, formal success could be declared by next summer.
- Before the rat phase, the campaign killed 98 feral ferrets using 450 traps, which RSPB announced in March 2025 as the first successful feral ferret eradication on an inhabited island.
- Conservationists used thermal drones, a specially trained sniffer dog, and professional climbers abseiling down cliffs to hang bait stations on sheer rock faces.
- Nearly 1,000 islands worldwide have attempted rodent eradications with a 90% success rate for rats, according to University of Auckland conservation biologist James Russell.
- Residents report a surge in rabbits since ferrets — their only predator — were eliminated, and harbour monitors now watch for rats arriving on boats.
Why it matters: Rathlin's success would validate rat eradication on a fully inhabited island, where helicopter bait drops are ruled out and human cooperation is essential — a model for the larger, more populated islands conservationists have so far avoided. The 90% global success rate already shows the technique works in remote places; proving it works here expands the playbook considerably.
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