The latest issue of the Mouse-Free Marion Quarterly Newsletter has been released

The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project is a non-profit company registered in South Africa and established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing House Mice Mus musculus on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  “Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate”.

The latest issue (No. 9 of April 2024) of the project’s quarterly newsletter has been released. Following on from a Welcome editorial by Robyn Adams, MFM Communications Officer and Project Assistant, the newsletter gives information of the MFM Project’s recent activities under the heads:

• Out of office at Marion Island. The MFM Project Manager and new MFM Project overwintering team member head to Marion Island as part of the annual relief voyage.
• Planning for success: The Mouse-Free Marion Project brings together experts at a Mouse-Eradication Workshop.
• MFM Patron, Peter Harrison MBE, visits the Mouse-Free Marion Project’s Cape Town office.

This Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans chick has been attacked by mice on Marion Island; it did not survive, 21 June 2023, photograph by Michelle Risi

Previous issues of the newsletter may be found on the project’s website.

With thanks to Robyn Adams, MFM Communications Officer and Project Assistant.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 25 April 2024