Rats on islands disrupt ecosystems from land to sea, researchers find

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Graduate student Carolyn Kurle holds one of the many rats of Rat Island. The rat was trapped and anesthetized as part of a tracking study. Photo by Shauna Reisewitz.
Graduate student Carolyn Kurle holds one of the many rats of Rat Island. The rat was trapped and anesthetized as part of a tracking study. Photo by Shauna Reisewitz.

Seabird colonies on islands are highly vulnerable to introduced rats, which find the ground-nesting birds to be easy prey. But the ecological impacts of rats on islands extend far beyond seabird nesting colonies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


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