The RSPB and other CONservation hooligans have come up with some
fantastic tall tales in the past to justify their Nazi style
persecution if alien species which we the tax payer has funded to the
tune of £456m in the last decade.
The latest *LIE* they expect us to fall for is that a mouse weighing
35grams is killing the albatross chicks that weigh up to 10kgs each.
This is the RSPB taking the piss to the extreme and the mugs that end
up paying for it is us!
They got away with fantastic stories to slaughter rare black rats on
Lundy and other islands. They got away with pu****ng through the
slaughter of the entire European population of ruddy ducks
see http://tinyurl.com/3qoopa
and
http://tinyurl.com/3wp3wh
and now they are trying it on with this fantastic story which is based
on nothing but the fact a mouse was seen near a dead chick on an open
nest in a field!
We cant stop what our taxes are wasted on but we can certainly stop
donating to the CONservation hooligans.
Whilst millions is wasted on Nazi style persecution of wildlife the
real conservation issues go without funding.
Imagine if they pull it off. Fat cat wages for all involved.
Helicopter rides to dump tonnes of highly toxic poisons
indiscriminately on yet another island!
It's time we stopped this hemorrhage of money being diverted to the
gold diggers whilst conservation suffers.
http://tinyurl.com/535yax
Giant carnivorous mice threaten world's greatest seabird colony
John Vidal guardian.co.uk, Monday May 19 2008
Whalers who visited remote Gough Island in the South Atlantic 150
years ago described a prelapsarian world where millions of birds lived
without predators and where a man could barely walk because he would
trip over their nests. Today the British-owned island, described as
the most im****tant seabird colony in the world, still hosts 22
breeding bird species and is a world heritage site.
But Gough is the stage for one of nature's greatest horror shows. One
of those whaling boats, probably from Britain, carried a few house
mice stowaways who jumped ****p on Gough. Now there are 700,000 or more
of them on the island, which is the size of Guernsey.
What is horrifying ornithgologists is that the humble house mouse
which landed on Gough has somehow evolved to two or even three times
the size of an ordinary British house mice, and instead of being a
vegetarian, eating insects and seeds, has adapted itself to become a
carnivore, eating albatross, petrel and shearwater chicks alive in
their nests. They are now believed to be the largest mice found
anywhere in the world.
Those who have witnessed the phenomenon say that the supersized mice
attack at night either on their own or in groups, gnawing through the
nests and into the baby birds' bodies. Their parents, who have never
experienced predators, are unable defend their offspring from the
rodents' furtive attacks.
Yesterday, Birdlife International, a global alliance of conservation
groups, recognised that the mutant mice, who are without predators
themselves, are now completely out of control and are threatening to
make extinct several of the world's rarest bird species.
The organisation, which runs the Red List of endangered bird species,
raised both the Tristan albatross, of which only a few remain in the
world, and the Gough bunting, a small finch found nowhere else in the
world, on to the list of the world's most critically endangered
species, the highest category of threat. Five other bird species on
the island are also said to be threatened.
"Things are getting worse on Gough. In the presence of house mice, the
albatross and bunting have no chance of survival. The only hope for
these threatened birds is the complete eradication of mice", said Dr
Geoff Hilton, an RSPB scientist who has been researching conservation
problems in UK overseas territories.
"The world's greatest seabird island is being eaten alive, as the mice
are likely to be affecting the fortunes of many seabirds on the
island. Without help, Gough Island will be likely to lose the majority
of seabirds," said Hilton.
Studies suggest that about 60% of all Gough's bird chicks die in their
nests, probably because of predation by the mice. "It is a
catastrophe. The albatross chicks weigh up to 10kgs. Ironically, they
evolved on Gough because it had no mammal predators - that is why they
are so vulnerable. The mice weigh just 35g; it is like a tabby cat
attacking a hippopotamus", said Hilton.
Yesterday, the RSPB proposed hiring helicopters to drop thousands of
tonnes of rodent poison on the island. "A government-funded
feasibility study done with New Zealand, which has eradicated rats
from many islands, shows it is possible. They mice would take the
poison and just go to their nests and die. We think it could be done
fairly easily and would cost about £2.6m", said a spokeswoman.
"The study shows there is a glimmer of light showing that we might be
able to fix this problem. The UK government has sup****ted us in
discovering the problem, in conducting the feasibility study, and now
in finalising our plan for the mouse eradication. The big question is
whether the UK will take its international commitments seriously and
do what the governments of New Zealand and Australia have done, and
provide the big money needed to actually do the mouse eradication. If
they don't, we won't be able to give two critically threatened species
the lifeline they need"
Britain has long been criticised for not maintaining the ecology of
its overseas territories which are mainly made up of groups of islands
like Pitcairn, Tristan da Cunha, and the Falklands. Of the world's 190
most endangered birds, 32 are now officially British responsibility.
The discovery that the mice had supersized themselves and adapted
their diets was made by Richard Cuthbert, a professional ornithologist
who spent a year on the island in 2001 and only stumbled on the
phenomenon as he was leaving the island. "It sounds incredulous,
implausible that a mouse could attack a chick, but these chicks are
really big spherical balls of fat covered in down, and because they
are so fat and big they cannot defend themselves", he said later.
|
