Island Conservation will support World Albatross Day by helping eradicate House Mice on Gough and Midway Islands this year

The mission of the international non-profit organization Island Conservation is to prevent extinctions by removing invasive species from islands.  It works with local communities, government management agencies and conservation organizations on islands with the greatest potential for preventing the extinction of globally threatened species.  “We develop comprehensive and humane plans for the removal of invasive species, implement the removal of invasive species; and conduct research to better understand how invasive species removal changes and benefits island ecosystems and to inform future conservation action”.

Island Conservation is headquartered in the United States with field offices in Australia, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.  Since its founding in 1994 Island Conservation and its partners have successfully restored 64 islands worldwide, benefiting 1195 populations of 487 species and subspecies (click here).

Gregg Howald, Island Conservation’s Director of Global and External Affairs has written to ACAP Latest News:

“We are proud to be celebrating World Albatross Day while implementing projects this year to remove invasive House Mice from Midway and Gough Islands in partnership with the United States Fish & Wildlife Service and the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.  These projects will help restore the breeding habitat of six species of albatrosses.  Restoration of breeding habitat through removal of invasive predators is a proven conservation tool that can have lasting and permanent benefits for breeding marine birds, including albatrosses.  The eradication of invasive species from islands removes one of the many pressures these birds face, and we are proud to be contributing to the successes of these globally significant programmes around the world.”

Gregg Howald, Island Conservation’s Director of Global and External Affairs

This year ACAP has chosen the overall theme “Eradicating Island Pests” to mark the inauguration of World Albatross Day on 19 June this year.  By then the eradication efforts on both Gough and Midway will either be underway or in the last stages of planning.  Although their success will not be immediately known, all who celebrate World Albatross Day 2020 with ACAP will surely be wishing the two field teams the very best of luck and an end to the islands’ ‘killer’ mice.

With thanks to Emily Heber & Gregg Howald, Island Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 January 2020