{"id":244327,"date":"2025-10-27T15:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T15:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/244327\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T15:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T15:06:08","slug":"scientists-stunned-by-results-after-removing-1-harmful-creature-from-island-chain-the-transformation-is-dramatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/244327\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists stunned by results after removing 1 harmful creature from island chain: ‘The transformation is dramatic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The successful removal of an invasive rat species saw nature spring back to life on two idyllic islands.<\/p>\n

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is an archipelago between Hawai’i and the Philippines. Two islands, Bikar Atoll and Jemo Islet, are home to incredible sea turtles, seabirds, coral reefs, and blissful lagoons. Unfortunately, over time, an invasive species<\/a> of black rat wreaked havoc on these delicate ecosystems, putting many flora and fauna at risk.<\/p>\n

After efforts by the nonprofit organization Island Conservation<\/a> to rid the islands of black rats one year ago, Good News Network<\/a> reported a huge success, describing the return of many species as an “explosion of wildlife.”<\/p>\n

Island Conservation project manager Paul Jacques commented, per Good News Network, “After only one year, the transformation is dramatic.” He highlighted the arrival of a colony of 2,000 sooty tern seabirds with hundreds of chicks, whereas previously the rats had destroyed their eggs, making it impossible for the species to live on the island.<\/p>\n

Similarly, this year, Island Conservation has discovered thousands of native Pisonia grandis tree seedlings, whereas in 2024, it found zero.<\/p>\n

“Native forests are crucial for seabird nesting and are critical to carbon absorption and the island’s ecological health,” Jacques told<\/a> Good News Network.<\/p>\n


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With native species thriving again on Bikar Atoll and Jemo Islet, indigenous communities have an influx of useful resources at their disposal.<\/p>\n

Invasive species<\/a> are notoriously difficult to remove from an area once they’ve been introduced, so this discovery is a positive sign that it is possible and that the damage done is reversible. A similar outcome after invasive rats and goats<\/a> were removed from the Caribbean island of Redonda shows how nature can bounce back.<\/p>\n

Keeping ecosystems in balance<\/a> by removing invasive species<\/a> is a key way to conserve native plants<\/a>, animals, and habitats. It can also limit the spread of diseases between both animals and humans and ensure that natural resources and food security<\/a> are protected for local communities.<\/p>\n

“This is why I keep doing this job \u2014 to see those kinds of transformations,” Jacques remarked to CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\"Cool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The successful removal of an invasive rat species saw nature spring back to life on two idyllic islands.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,5424,11205,88485,1295,191,58779,10009,10665,128,338,14715],"class_list":{"0":"post-244327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-beauty","11":"tag-change-the-way-you-get-involved-on-climate-issues","12":"tag-explore-critical-climate-issues","13":"tag-food","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-native-lawn-gem","16":"tag-outdoors","17":"tag-reddit-gem","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-yahoo-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}