Ratwatch and fundraising Oct 27th 2015 update (.pdf document)
Citizen science – with the cruise ship season starting passengers can help us look for recovery signs of the bird population…
Signs of recovery: “… and most poignant of all everywhere you went on South Georgia before 2011 you’d see lots of little tracks in the snow and they would always be rats and mice. Today everywhere you go you will see similar tracks in the snow just like this but these are made by Pipits. I still cannot get used to coming across tracks in the snow and every single one is a Pipit tack rather than a rat or a mouse track, and to me this kind of summarizes what SGHT [and FOSGI] has been able to bring about on South Georgia, an absolute transformation of the wildlife there and of course we’re only just starting the recovery, it’ll be going on for decades and centuries.”
Professor Tony Martin, Habitat Restoration Project Director.
and any dreaded rodent signs….
( rodent signs image from https://www.gov.gs INFORMATION FOR VISITORS TO SOUTH GEORGIA 2015/16 )
Gearing up for Phase 4 – we want to declare South Georgia rodent free.
Professor Tony Martin, Habitat Restoration, Project Director, describes the monitoring phase..
“The rule of thumb internationally is to investigate two years after you finish baiting and if you don’t find any rodent sign you say that’s it – job done. We’re going to leave it a little bit more than that and in fact in the case of phase 2 it’ll be four and a half years, because it is such a vast area.
No one has tried to look for rodents over a place 100 miles long, with mountains 3,000 meters high. …but we have to do it at some stage and so the end of 2017, beginning of 2018 will be the best time to do it we believe. We’ll go there with a team of people with chew sticks and camera traps and various other devices and if no rodent sign is found then South Georgia will be declared free.”