Rat Island (Alaska)
Encyclopedia
Rat Islands
The Rat Islands are a volcanic group of islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska, between Buldir Island and the Near Islands group to its west, and Amchitka Pass and the Andreanof Islands group to its east, at about ....
archipelago of the western Aleutian Islands in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. The island has a land area of 10.3126 sq mi (26.7095 km²) and no permanent population. It is within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge comprising 2,400 islands, headlands, rocks, islets, spires and reefs in Alaska, with a total area of , of which is wilderness)...
.
The name is the English translation of the name given to the islands by Captain Fyodor Petrovich Litke
Fyodor Petrovich Litke
Count Fyodor Petrovich Litke , born Friedrich Benjamin Lütke, was a Russian navigator, geographer, and Arctic explorer. He became a count in 1866, and an admiral in 1855. He was a Corresponding Member , Honorable Member , and President of the Russian Academy of Science in St.Petersburg...
in 1827 when he visited the Aleutian Islands on a voyage around the world.
The Rat Islands are very earthquake-prone as they are located on the boundary of the Pacific
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
and North American
North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland, Cuba, Bahamas, and parts of Siberia, Japan and Iceland. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust...
tectonic plates
Tectonic Plates
Tectonic Plates is a 1992 independent Canadian film directed by Peter Mettler. Mettler also wrote the screenplay based on the play by Robert Lepage. The film stars Marie Gignac, Céline Bonnier and Robert Lepage.-Plot summary:...
. In 1965, there was a major earthquake with the magnitude 8.7 in the Rat Islands
1965 Rat Islands earthquake
The 1965 Rat Islands earthquake occurred at 05:01 UTC, on 4 February. It had a magnitude of 8.7 and triggered a tsunami of over 10 m on Shemya Island, but caused very little damage.-Damage:...
.
Rat population
The island was heavily infested with Brown ratBrown Rat
The brown rat, common rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Brown Norway rat, Norwegian rat, or wharf rat is one of the best known and most common rats....
s, which are considered a nuisance invasive species
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
due to their negative impact on the population of ground-nesting wild birds.
The rats arrived on the island before 1780 due to a Japanese shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
. Since then, the rats have had a devastating effect on local seabirds that have no natural defenses against the rats. Since the introduction, the rats have spread to at least 16 other islands.
In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Refuge, was formulating plans to eradicate the rats
Island restoration
The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as important breeding grounds for seabirds and some...
, without negatively affecting other species. Scientists considered the island a test case for other eradications in less isolated environments. The eradication plan is modeled on a successful one to eliminate the red fox
Red Fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...
from various Aleutian islands, where they were deliberately introduced for breeding.
In June 2009, the island was declared rat-free for the first time in 229 years, although the site will be continually monitored for another two years for confirmation. In the preceding autumn, helicopters dropped brodifacoum
Brodifacoum
Brodifacoum is a highly lethal vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant poison. In recent years, it has become one of the world's most widely used pesticides...
poison onto the island from buckets for a week, which seems to have eliminated the rat population. Signs show that several species of birds, including Aleutian cackling geese
Aleutian Cackling Goose
The Aleutian Cackling Goose , formerly known as the Aleutian Canada Goose , is small subspecies of Cackling Goose averaging 1700 to 2100 grams....
, ptarmigan, peregrine falcons
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...
and black oystercatchers
American Black Oystercatcher
The Black Oystercatcher, Haematopus bachmani, is a conspicuous black bird found on the shoreline of western North America. It ranges from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the coast of the Baja California peninsula....
, are starting to nest again on the island.