Rat Island

Rat Island rises from the icy gray waters of the Bering Sea, a
mass of volcanic rock covered with tundra, midway between Alaska and
Siberia. Once a remote sanctuary for enormous flocks of seabirds, the
island gained a new name when shipwrecked rats colonized, savaging the
nesting birds by the thousands. Now, on this and hundreds of other
remote islands around the world, a massive - and massively
controversial - wildlife rescue mission is under way.

Islands,
making up just 3 percent of Earth's landmass, harbor more than half of
its endangered species. These fragile ecosystems, home to unique species
that evolved in peaceful isolation, have been catastrophically
disrupted by mainland predators: rats, cats, goats, and pigs ferried by
humans to islands around the globe. To save these endangered islanders,
academic ecologists have teamed up with professional hunters and
semiretired poachers in a radical act of conservation now bent on
annihilating the invaders. Sharpshooters are sniping at goat herds from
helicopters. Biological SWAT teams are blanketing mountainous isles with
rat poison. Rat Island reveals a little-known and much-debated side of today's conservation movement, founded on a cruel-to-be-kind philosophy.

Touring
exotic locales with a ragtag group of environmental fighters, William
Stolzenburg delivers both perilous adventure and intimate portraits of
human, beast, hero, and villain. And amid manifold threats to life on
Earth, he reveals a new reason to hope.

Auteur

Will Stolzenburg has studied predator control techniques and worked as a wildlife technician, monitoring endangered species. He has written hundreds of magazine features and columns on the ecology of rarity and extinction for Science News and Nature Conservancy, among others. He lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Résumé
Rat Island rises from the icy gray waters of the Bering Sea, a mass of volcanic rock covered with tundra, midway between Alaska and Siberia. Once a remote sanctuary for enormous flocks of seabirds, the island gained a new name when shipwrecked rats colonized, savaging the nesting birds by the thousands. Now, on this and hundreds of other remote islands around the world, a massive - and massively controversial - wildlife rescue mission is under way.Islands, making up just 3 percent of Earth's landmass, harbor more than half of its endangered species. These fragile ecosystems, home to unique species that evolved in peaceful isolation, have been catastrophically disrupted by mainland predators: rats, cats, goats, and pigs ferried by humans to islands around the globe. To save these endangered islanders, academic ecologists have teamed up with professional hunters and semiretired poachers in a radical act of conservation now bent on annihilating the invaders. Sharpshooters are sniping at goat herds from helicopters. Biological SWAT teams are blanketing mountainous isles with rat poison. Rat Island reveals a little-known and much-debated side of today's conservation movement, founded on a cruel-to-be-kind philosophy.Touring exotic locales with a ragtag group of environmental fighters, William Stolzenburg delivers both perilous adventure and intimate portraits of human, beast, hero, and villain. And amid manifold threats to life on Earth, he reveals a new reason to hope.