The so-called “Galapagos of the North,” one of the most biodiverse places in the world, is on high alert, and for good reason.
In the middle of the Bering Strait and 250 miles off the coast of Alaska, there’s an island called St. Paul. It’s home to a school, a bar, a post office, a small store, an old Orthodox church, and around 400 people.
A rat also lives on the island, or at least that’s what the neighbors think because they haven’t found it yet.
Welcome to St. Paul. This small island, barely 42 square miles in size, is home to the largest Aleutian community in the U.S. However, it’s especially known for its biological uniqueness. It was one of the last places where mammoths survived. Today, it’s considered a “birder’s paradise.”
Since 1982, St. Paul and the rest of the Pribilof Islands have been part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. This is because it’s estimated to be a breeding ground for half a million northern fur seals and is visited each year by millions of birds of 329 different species. In addition to this, the island is home to harbor seals, sea lions, blue foxes, reindeer, and countless endemic plants.
The issue is that the single presence of a rat can change everything.
A call for help from the middle of the ocean. In June, a resident contacted the Ecosystem Conservation Office to report they had seen a rat. This set off immediate concern. The last time a rat had made its way onto the island, it took the St. Paul’s authorities a year to locate and eliminate it. There’s no time to lose.
“I immediately started asking questions and started crawling under the porch,” Lauren Divine, the office’s director, told The New York Times. Her team searched for “signs of a rat,” such as “droppings or chew marks,” and checked all potential hiding spots. They set traps and installed field cameras. Additionally, several federal agencies enacted the protocol for dealing with invasive species arriving on the island.
All this effort for a rat? In fact, all this effort for a rat that may not even exist. But it’s necessary. Historically, rats have been one of the main contributors to the decline of native ecosystems. Biologist Álvaro Bayón explained, “They displace species of small mammals, birds, and reptiles, reduce their reproductive capacity, and have caused the extinction of multiple species of vertebrates, insects, and plants.”
He continued, “Rats are omnivorous animals, very intelligent, and have a high capacity for socialization. They’re capable of cooperating and solving complex problems.” This poses a significant threat to island ecosystems. A study by Lancaster University in the United Kingdom estimated that in the British Chagos archipelago (seven atolls lost in the Indian Ocean), “seabird densities on rat-free islands are up to 720 times higher” than on invaded islands.
To understand the severity of the problem, you just have to think about how the island is often called–“the Galapagos of the North.”
A never-ending fight. For many years, the community in the south of the island has been dealing with a persistent struggle against the arrival of rats. They’ve implemented permanent measures to detect and neutralize the rats, particularly around the airport and port area. Despite their efforts, a rat managed to sneak onto the island in 2018-2019 and remained hidden for months.
The community has succeeded in ridding the island of rats in some natural areas, but these processes take years and cost millions of dollars. The potential damage caused by a rat infestation during this time is huge.
The planet can’t afford to lose the war against rats. Donald Lyons, the director of conversation science with the National Audubon Society’s Seabird Institute, stated the immense value of the island in an interview with TIME: “It’s just the abundance of wildlife that we hear stories or read historical accounts of, but really seldom see in kind of our modern age.”
Image | Nikolett Emmert
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