The night-walkers of Uganda

Mice eating rare seabirds alive
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Elementary
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Look in the text and find the following information as quickly as possible.
Where is Gough Island?
How far is Gough Island from the coast of South America?
How many species of birds live on the island?
How many mice are there on the island?
How much will it cost to remove all the mice from the island? 
How much do the albatross chicks weigh?
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From stowaway to supersize predator: 
the mice eating rare seabirds alive 
John Vidal, environment editor 
May 20, 2008
Gough Island is a small hilly island in the cold 
South Atlantic, 2,000 miles from the coast of 
South America. It is home to tens of thousands 
of seabirds. For tens of thousands of years 
the birds of Gough Island lived safely on their 
rocky island, which some people say is the 
most important home for seabirds in the world. 
Today there are still 22 species of birds and 
Gough Island is protected by the World Heritage 
Committee of UNESCO. 
But now something terrible is happening to the 
birds on Gough Island. When the first whaling 
ships landed there 150 years ago, a number of 
mice escaped from the ships and made their 
home on the island. Now there are more than 
700,000 mice on an island which is only 25 
square miles in size.
Ornithologists are shocked that the British house 
mouse has somehow changed and now grows 
to almost three times the size of normal house 
mice. House mice usually eat insects and seeds 
but the mice on Gough Island have changed 
and are now meat-eaters. They eat baby birds 
alive in their nests and they are now the largest 
mice in the world. Birdlife International, a global 
conservation group, says that the mice on Gough 
Island are out of control and could make several 
of the world’s rarest bird species extinct.
Birdlife International keeps a list of endangered 
bird species and has now put two of Gough 
Island’s bird species on the list of the world’s 
most endangered species, the highest level of 
danger. There is also a danger that five other bird 
species on the island will become extinct.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 
(RSPB) has suggested using helicopters to 
drop thousands of tonnes of rat poison on 
Gough Island. “New Zealand has removed rats 
completely from many islands, so it is possible. 
The mice will eat the poison and just go to their 
nests and die. We think it will be quite easy 
to do and it will cost about £2.6m,” an RSPB 
spokeswoman said.
“Things are getting worse on Gough,” said Dr 
Geoff Hilton, an RSPB scientist who has been 
studying conservation problems in the UK’s 
overseas territories. “The presence of house 
mice means that rare birds have no chance 
of survival. The only hope for these birds is to 
remove the mice completely. The mice are eating 
this island alive. Without help Gough Island will 
probably lose most of its seabirds,” said Hilton.
People who have seen the mice in action say 
they attack at night either alone or in groups, 
eating through the nests to attack the baby 
birds. The birds’ parents can’t defend them. 
Studies show that about 60% of all the baby 
birds on Gough Island die in their nests. “It’s 
disastrous. The albatross chicks weigh ten 
kilograms but they are easy to attack. The mice 
weigh 35 grams; it is like a pet cat attacking a 
hippopotamus,” said Hilton.
The RSPB’s spokeswoman added: “The study 
shows there is some hope. The UK government 
has helped us to discover the problem, to 
conduct the study, and now to finalize our plan to 
destroy the mice. The big question is whether the 
UK will provide the big money needed to actually 
destroy the mice. Without this money, we can’t 
help these endangered bird species.”
Richard Cuthbert, a professional ornithologist 
who spent a year on the island in 2001, was 
the man who first discovered that the mice had 
changed their diet and increased in size. “It 
sounds incredible that a mouse could attack a 
baby bird, but these birds are so fat and big that 
they cannot defend themselves,” he said.