Australian Wildlife Conservancy
In the battle of ‘native wildlife vs introduced invaders’, it’s the native species that are winning at North Head Sanctuary in Sydney where Australia’s small Bush Rats are successfully reclaiming their territory from gangs of invasive Black Rats.
Results from recent wildlife surveys found that the population of Black Rats at North Head has decreased from an estimated 112 in 2019 to 29 in 2020. The decline continued in May 2021, when only eight Black Rats were captured during a survey of 250 hectares at the sanctuary. Australian Wildlife Conservancy delivers conservation science projects including survey work such as this at North Head Sanctuary which is managed by Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. The significant decrease in Black Rats is directly linked to the reintroduction of 170 Bush Rats between 2014 and 2016, which were released as part of a unique initiative to use native wildlife to outcompete a foreign species and act as a biologi
Top 10 Fascinating Facts About Rats
Few creatures in the world inspire more dread than the rat. Long a symbol of death and pestilence, they haunt our nightmares and scuttle in our walls, scaly tails dragging behind them. Rats cause billions of dollars in damage every year, spoiling food supplies, chewing through electrical wires, biting babies in their cribs – and yet their benefits to mankind have been simultaneously overwhelming. Read below for further information on some of our creepiest neighbors.
10
Norway Rats
Although there are many different species of rats, the one most people associate with the word are Brown or Norway rats. Likely originating in China, the largest specimens can top 2.2lbs. Norway rats plague cities such as New York (where population estimates vary wildly- from a few hundred thousand to a few hundred million depending on your source) and London and have pervaded nearly every corner of the globe with the rare exceptions of Arctic and Antarctic areas, t
¿Cuáles son las 100 especies invasoras más dañinas del mundo y de España? elperiodico.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from elperiodico.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Like most websites we use cookies. If you’re happy with that, just carry on as normal (close this bar) - otherwise click here to find out more. 19 May 2021
The harbour, Berlenga Grande Island
By Joana Andrade, Head of Marine Conservation, SPEA/BirdLife Portugal
When I first visited the Berlengas, a group of islands off the coast of Portugal, the state of the local biodiversity was alarming, to say the least. Foreign species that had been unintentionally introduced by humans – invasive species – such as the Hottentot Fig (
Carpobrotus edulis), Black Rats (
Rattus rattus) and European Rabbits (