Drones unleashed against invasive rats in the Galapagos

Authorities of Ecuador and the Island Conservation for the first time used drones to eradicate invasive rats on North Seymour island and a nearby islet Mosquera, which are the part of the Galapagos archipelago. Drones were used to drop poisoned bait around the island, reports Nature.

Rats have been the target of eradication campaigns of Ecuador and local nature protection foundations in the Galapagos for many years. The rodents, which breed uncontrollably, cause extensive damage to other native animals and plants, especially to seabirds, including storm petrels and Galapagos shearwaters.

The rats also threaten plants, especially the fragrant palo santo tree (Bursera graveolens) and Opuntia cactuses. In 2007, people succeeded in ridding North Seymour of invasive rats, however in 2018 the rodents had returned, probably by swimming from the neighboring island of Baltra.

North Seymour has an area of 1.8 square kilometers. In the past the bite was spread across the island by hand or by helicopters. On 12 January 2019 for the first time the bite laced with rat poison was dropped by drones. This made the whole process safer and easier.
The bite was spread by two six-rotor drone copters capable of carrying up to 20 kilograms of bait for up to 15 minutes each. According to the specialists, mechanical difficulties with the drones shut the operation down when only half of the island was treated. The workers had to spread the rest of the bait by hand.

Poisoning rats require dropping the bait twice, 21 days apart. This also will be done using drones. Then the scientists will be monitoring the population of rats on the island for two years.

In 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to use drones for delivering vaccines to protect prairie dogs against plague. Healthy prairie dogs are a source of food for black-footed ferrets entered in the List of Endangered Species of North America. It is planned to unleash the drones to shoot vaccine-laced bites across America’s great plains.