A purported sighting of a rat wouldn’t get much attention in many places, but it caused a stir earlier this year on Alaska's St. Paul Island.
The search was likened to trying to find a needle in a haystack “and not knowing if a needle even exists.”Streaming 24/7: Watch NBC 5 local news and weather for free wherever you are
Rodents have been removed successfully from hundreds of islands worldwide — including one in Alaska's Aleutian chain formerly known as “Rat Island,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But such efforts can take years and cost millions of dollars, so prevention is considered the best defense.
Divine likened the search to trying to find a needle in a haystack “and not knowing if a needle even exists.”The community of about 350 people — clustered on the southern tip of a treeless island marked by rolling hills, rimmed by cliffs and battered by storms — has long had a rodent surveillance program that includes rat traps near the airport and at developed waterfront areas where vessels arrive, designed to detect or kill any rats that might show up.
If the agency moves ahead, it might take five years for the first of the projects to be launched, and given the intensive planning, testing and research required for each island, it could take decades to complete all of them, said Stacey Buckelew, an island invasive species biologist with Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
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