Rat Poison Dropped on East Anacapa Island
After more than a month of delay, the National Park Service dropped thousands of poisoned pellets over East Anacapa Island on Wednesday morning in a long-planned effort to kill its population of black rats.
An animal advocacy group had tried to block the $700,000 eradication program in Channel Islands National Park, contending that the poison would harm other wildlife on the three islets of the island off the Ventura County coast.
But a U.S. District Court judge ruled last month that the park service could proceed with the plan, aimed at saving the Xantus’ murrelet, a small and rare bird that nests on the island. The rats prey on the birds and their eggs.
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