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Alberta's image as world's only rat-free region shattered by discovery of rat

46 points · 33 comments · pseudolus

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alwa · 1790409587 · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://archive.is/VYfJK" rel="nofollow">https://archive.is/VYfJK
defrost · 1790410262 · focus · HN ↗
Australia’s Lord Howe Island has officially been the world’s largest inhabited island to eradicate feral rodents since July 2023:
```
  Two years should elapse before an island can declare itself ‘rodent free’, allowing for any survivors to breed up to a detectable level.

  So, in July 2023, the LHIB ‘Checkpoint’ program began its search for rodents.

  Over a two-week period, teams systematically surveyed the island’s Permanent Park Preserve and the settlement area. More than 950 detection device checks were undertaken including 140 tracking tunnels, 32 trail cameras, and 300 wax tags and chew cards, along with sweeps by detection dogs. The collected evidence, analysed by the Island Eradication Advisory Group from the New Zealand Department of Conservation, found no signs of rats or mice on the island.

  The island’s rodent population had – officially – been eradicated. 
```
~ <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/nature-wildlife/2026/06/freed-from-the-rat-race/" rel="nofollow">https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/nature-wildlife/2026...
1. nephihaha · 1790413669 · focus · HN ↗
  The majority of Antarctica is rat free.
  1. ThrustVectoring · 1790413734 · focus · HN ↗
    Antarctica has zero permanent inhabitants
    defrost · 1790415830 · focus · HN ↗
    The Emperor Penguins would disagree- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_of_Antarctica" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_of_Antarctica
    They've been lucky the area's too cold for Black Rats from ship wrecks to survive and decimate their colonies, as has happened to many birds on many islands and remote peninsulas.
    nephihaha · 1790438936 · focus · HN ↗
    Neither does Lord Howe Island, but continental Antarctica is probably the world's largest rat-free region. I'm sure many rats have made it ashore, and survived briefly, and some have managed to live in stations/bases, but most of the continent will be rat-free.
    On the other hand, I'm aware rats have managed to survived in South Georgia, and caused problems for local flora and fauna there.
beloch · 1790410351 · focus · HN ↗
Misleading headline.
Alberta is rat-free because its government has maintained an eradication program for three quarters of a century. That doesn't mean there are never rats in Alberta. It means that, when some show up, they're reported and destroyed. To date, the costs of maintaining the program have been smaller than the economic damage rats would otherwise inflict, so it has continued.
Bowden is nowhere near the border, so this is a little concerning. Hopefully it was just an isolated individual that made it in through a shipment.
1. throwaway2037 · 1790416421 · focus · HN ↗
  Agree 100%. This term "shattered" in a headline should immediately raise suspicions. That programme was started in 1950! I would say that it has been incredibly successful.
  1. goodcanadian · 1790420704 · focus · HN ↗
    Having grown up in Alberta, somewhat close to the Saskatchewan border, I would say that it has been amazingly successful. I had never in my life seen a rat until I was an adult and moved out of province. Rats were, quite literally, semi-mythical things to me.
    throwaway2037 · 1790421800 · focus · HN ↗
    > Rats were, quite literally, semi-mythical things to me.
    Truly, a sentence I never thought I would read on the Internet!
    dustbunny · 1790435778 · focus · HN ↗
    Im from the same area, never saw a rat until I moved to California.
    jamwil · 1790435901 · focus · HN ↗
    Also Albertan. Had never seen a rat until I moved to Vancouver at the age of 34.
    snapplebobapple · 1790451002 · focus · HN ↗
    So the rumours are true? Everywhere else is a den of scum and villainy?
    pseudohadamard · 1790495815 · focus · HN ↗
    You don't have lobbyists anywhere in Alberta?
    throwaway2037 · 1790614467 · focus · HN ↗
    I gotta say, you got me. I know we aren't supposed to post Reddit-like humorous replies here, but this one is damn good.
2. philipallstar · 1790421910 · focus · HN ↗
  It's probably a tongue-in-cheek headline written by a bored editor, but the article itself is written poorly and in the same vein.
rdwallis · 1790410370 · focus · HN ↗
The article lists climate change as the cause of the rise in rat populations in major cities but wouldn't cat neutering and spaying campaigns have a more direct impact? The huge reduction in feral cats over the last few decades seems a more likely direct cause, not just in how big the rat population is but also in the visibility of the rats in major cities. Rats don't have to hide as much if there are fewer cats around.
1. SockThief · 1790410812 · focus · HN ↗
  Cats don't care that much about rats.
  "Temporal and Space-Use Changes by Rats in Response to Predation by Feral Cats in an Urban Ecosystem" - <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00146/full?utm_source=FWEB&utm_medium=NBLOG&utm_campaign=ECO_FEVO_rats-cats" rel="nofollow">https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/a...
  1. aitchnyu · 1790416037 · focus · HN ↗
    I have a feeling cats are evolving to avoid mice in this corner of India. I had a stray mother cat who kept kittens on the roof. The mother weighed 3-4kg and two kittens weighed 750g each. The prey skeletons around them were mostly reptiles and birds. The cats catching mice for their kittens give them an infection that kills within days.
    throwaway2037 · 1790416807 · focus · HN ↗
    > The cats catching mice for their kittens give them an infection that kills within days.
    Do you know what is the root cause of the deadly infection? One idea: Rodent poison bioaccumulates, then kills the hunters. This has been witnessed many times in mountain lions living in Los Angeles county.
  2. sellmesoap · 1790444823 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah terriers are the way to go, my cats will only take on wayward juvenile rats, full size rats are more like potential cuddle warmth for the cats! I've witnessed rats stalk and kill pigeons, from a famers context the only good rat is a dead rat. They make awesome pets though, so a lot of mixed feelings for me.
2. crote · 1790414925 · focus · HN ↗
  I doubt it. There are plenty of cities without significant feral cat populations without rat problems.
  In my part of the world cats are a rare sight on the streets, and virtually all of them wear a collar so they aren't feral. Meanwhile I can't recall ever having seen a rat, and according to the local statistics almost all rat extermination happens at farms.
  Don't want rats in your city? Don't leave trash lying around in places easily-accessible to rats.
  1. phoronixrly · 1790416536 · focus · HN ↗
    Agreed from my observations as well. Animals like rats, pidgeons, gulls need food. In urban environments this means trash. Live in a society that keeps its environment free of trash (including properly kept landfills) and pests will be significantly less.
  2. expedition32 · 1790438538 · focus · HN ↗
    There are always rats you just can't see them. Rats are intelligent creatures they know that humans go crazy.
3. miki123211 · 1790415647 · focus · HN ↗
  1. Why do we want fewer rats in our cities?
  2. Why do we want fewer cats in our cities?
  3. Would we rather fewer cats or fewer rats?
  1. hulitu · 1790526770 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes
tkel · 1790410832 · focus · HN ↗
So when other life exists in areas with humans, humans seek to exterminate it? Sad and cruel state of affairs.
1. beloch · 1790413153 · focus · HN ↗
  Are you offering up your kitchen as a habitat for rats? Will you open your windows at night so mosquitoes can feed on you and reproduce? Will you leave scraps out for cockroaches? Would you turn farms over to weeds and pests at the expense of the crops that feed you? Will you refuse to vaccinate your children so bubonic plague and polio can make a comeback?
  1. crote · 1790415016 · focus · HN ↗
    There's a large movement refusing to vaccinate already, so that part is well underway.
2. dlisboa · 1790421883 · focus · HN ↗
  Rats are not native to North America.
Wryivy94 · 1790413683 · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
pavlov · 1790415096 · focus · HN ↗
The last four words seem like a surprising waste of headline space.
What else could shatter it?
1. philipallstar · 1790421983 · focus · HN ↗
  Other places being rat-free.
[deleted] · 1790417082 · focus · HN ↗
[deleted]
pythonRon · 1790417576 · focus · HN ↗
Ha! I thought all the rats were in the Alberta legislature.
pelagicAustral · 1790420920 · focus · HN ↗
Time to pay the piper
ChrisArchitect · 1790455262 · focus · HN ↗
Recent and related:
How Alberta Eradicated Rats
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584709">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48584709

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