A multi-year project enters its next phase as it aims to protect seabirds from further decline.
While awaiting the results from the world’s first feral Ferret eradication, the team on Rathlin Island are now working to stop seabird chicks and eggs, and other threatened wildlife, from being predated by invasive non-native Brown Rats.
Rathlin Island lies off the coast of Northern Ireland, just a half hour journey from Ballycastle Harbour. Take the trip on the ferry and you will be transported to a wild, rugged refuge for some of the UK’s most precious wildlife. Here, endangered Corncrakes make their ‘crex’ call from the thick nettles, while rare Golden Hares scan the landscape with their striking blue eyes.
The geology and the tides mean Rathlin is a rich feeding ground for seabirds. Thousands of Fulmars and Kittiwakes raise their young on rocky ledges. The island has the largest population of breeding Guillemots in the whole of the UK and Ireland, and the second greatest number of Razorbills in the UK.
Yet this species stronghold is under threat. Only one in three Puffin chicks survived to fledge in 2023, and the once abundant Manx Shearwaters are now almost entirely absent.
Ferrets and Brown Rats are both not originally from Rathlin, with rats finding their own way over on boats in the 1800s and Ferrets being brought over in the 1980s.
As they are not naturally occurring, they have few predators on the island. They have quickly become well established, causing catastrophic consequences for Rathlin’s wildlife.
Since Ferrets have arrived here, they have learned to eat the eggs, chicks, and even adults of Puffins, Guillemots, and other seabirds, and very likely predated Corncrakes as well.
Along with causing declines in vulnerable species, they cause issues for the island residents, damaging buildings and small holdings, and preying on the community’s chickens. They also pose threats to Rathlin’s economy, which is reliant on the thousands of visitors who come to see the island’s seabird spectacle every spring and summer.
2021 marked the start of an over £4.5 million multi-partner project to restore the island’s biosecurity and safeguard threatened species. This project is led by RSPB NI and the Rathlin Development & Community Association, with funding from EU LIFE, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation and DAERA. Using extensive monitoring, research, and local knowledge, the team pinpointed key areas and installed a comprehensive grid, with a trap every 250 metres across the island.
Since last October, the project has been focused on finding the last few individuals in the feral Ferret eradication. While we won’t be able to confirm its success until spring 2025, there hasn't been a single verified sighting of Ferrets since November. This is a really promising indication that there may only be one or two Ferrets left on the island. Could Rathlin be the world's first successful Ferret eradication?
From October, the project will turn its attention to rats. This is an ambitious task and will be unachievable without the help of the community. The work will involve putting a bait station every 50m across the island – including in homes, sheds and gardens. That’s nearly 7,000 bait stations in total, every one handmade by the team and volunteers. Some of our staff will need to scale cliffs and stacks to deploy them!
The team will also use a toolkit of different techniques, from thermal imaging drones to a detection dog. The dog is highly trained to sniff out scat around the island and can indicate to their handler where these non-native mammals are present.
The project will also host one of the largest team of residential volunteers in the RSPB, all working to make sure that this eradication is a success.
Baiting will run from October until the end of March, after which two years of monitoring will follow.
With the recent addition of five new seabird species on the Red List, we need to take action to protect them. Avian influenza, changing sea temperatures and a loss of food sources are some of the contributing factors causing these severe declines.
Safeguarding vital breeding sites is essential if we want to turn the tides. And we know that, with your help and support, and the support of partners and local communities, we can do it. We’ve done it before.
On Lundy, the RSPB, Natural England, The National Trust and The Landmark Trust formed a partnership to eradicate invasive, non-native Brown Rats and the island was declared rat-free in 2006.
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