Marion Island: Birds, Cats, Mice and Men

Abstract

AbstractMarion and Prince Edward Islands, 2 300 km off the southern tip of Africa, are home to several million breeding seabirds. But five domestic cats were introduced as pets to the meteorological station on Marion Island in 1948. By the mid-1980s, the feral cat population, by then over 2 000 strong, were estimated to be killing over 455 000 ground-nesting petrels and prions per year. A seven-phase campaign, combining the use of trapping, the release of feline panleucopaenia virus, and intensive hunting, across more than twenty years, led to the total extermination of cats on the island, the largest project of its kind undertaken to that date.