Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Since the year 1500, islands have been home to over 75% of known bird, mammal, amphibian, and reptile extinctions. The majority of these have been caused by introduced species, particularly vertebrates such as rats, mice, cats, and ungulates. Arguably, the most damaging vertebrate taxon on island ecosystems is the rodents. Mice and rats have been implicated in around half of all bird and reptile extinctions. Rodents have been introduced now to over 80% of the world’s islands. Over the last 70+ years, conservationists around the world have been working to recover species and island ecosystems from the impacts of invasive species, particularly rodents, developing systematic approaches and techniques that are guided by principles of island invasive species eradication. The eradication of rodents from islands is not only possible, but has been completed on over 600 islands, from small offshore rocks to 400,000-ha South Georgia Island, with hundreds of native species protected from the threat of extinction. Rodent eradication is becoming a mainstream tool used by managers worldwide. However, there are limits to current technologies and approaches, and, globally, we can only reach a relatively small number of islands and threatened island species. To protect and recover threatened species, conservationists must increase the scale, scope, and pace of eradication of invasive species from islands, and focus on innovation of new tools, techniques, and strategies to be allow restoration on larger and more complex islands. One of the biggest challenges to success is ensuring that the public is supportive and allows pest management tools to be used for conservation purposes. New technologies are on the horizon to improve invasive species eradications, including genetic tools and species-specific toxicants.