DEADLY flesh-eating mice are
threatening to wipe out some of the world’s rarest birds on a precious wildlife
paradise run by Britain.
Plagues of hungry rodents are
killing up to 600,000 birds a year on one of the UK’s 30 UNESCO World Heritage
Sites.
Conservationists warned today
that Gough Island in the South Atlantic is in danger of losing its prestigious
status – a standing that puts it on par with the Great Barrier Reef,
Yellowstone National Park and the Galapagos archipelago – unless the
carnivorous mice are not wiped out.
Britain has 30 World Heritage
Sites, including Stonehenge, the Giant’s Causeway and Blenheim Palace as well
as four overseas, but there are mounting fears for the future of Gough Island’s
status because of the mice infestation.
A new report timed to coincide
with the 40th World Heritage Committee meeting is revealing how the mice are
causing massive breeding failure in most of the seabird colonies, including the
threatened Atlantic petrel and the critically endangered Tristan albatross, now
down to its last 2,000 pairs.
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