There may, or may not have been Black Rats on Lundy continuously for 400 years ( I don't have proof either way, Animal Aid must have! ). The Black Rat is not an endangered species, and as Steve states probably arrived with the Romans!.
Is it a good idea to slaughter them?. Well, if they are responsible for the reductions in the Bird life, then yes. I prefer not to use the word Cull. As pointed out in another thread it means to remove a few. Slaughter, not correct either. The report doesn't say they will be killed with an axe or a humane killer. Eradicate sounds about right.
unless of course Animal Aid has a better idea of how to remove the rats, and to fund it themselves!. Animal aid is only ever against things, or, leave thing to take their own course ( rats kill off birds. rats die no food. Problems solved!). Oh sorry. Animal Aid also regrets humans ( shouldn't be so many ).
Oh by the way. Animal Aid is also afraid that other wildlife will suffer from the poison. The report posted by Steve says traps not poison!.
But animal protection organisation Animal Aid believes reasoning behind the mass extermination on the island in the Bristol Channel is flawed. " It wants the groups behind the cull - including the RSPB, (WHAT A SUPRISE!!!!}English Nature and the National Trust - to call it off and find another way of restoring the balance between the island's birds and rats. Oh, Pray tell how!.
I get the cynicism through reading the UK.REC. Bird Watching news group and see the way they use SPAM. I once had sympathy. But not any more!.
Anyway.
Extracted from :
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/rattus/r._rattus$narrative.html
Economic Importance for Humans
^ Negative
The black rat is economically important in terms of damaging food stores and as a transmitter of diseases like the bubonic plague, typhus, food poisoning, and trichinosis. Rat-borne diseases are thought to have taken more human lives in the last ten centuries than all the wars and revolutions ever fought. One subspecies, Rattus rattus brevicaudatus, has even caused famines. It consumes and destroys food stores and carries epidemics and diseases with its fleas, urine, and dirt (Grzimek 1990). Black rats gnaw through insulation from electrical wires, sometimes causing fires. They also kill poultry, domestic livestock, and game birds. Through predation and competition, they have contributed to the endangerment or extinction of many species of wildlife (Nowak 1991).
^ Conservation
Status: no special status
Populations of R. rattus are stable. Five subspecies exist: Rattus rattus alexandrinus (Alexandria black rat), Rattus rattus brevicaudatus (Sawah rat), Rattus rattus diardii (Malayan black rat), Rattus rattus frugivorous (fruit rat), and Rattus rattus rattus (black rat).
Alan