The $1 million eradication project, funded by the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy, was begun with an aerial drop of poisoned baits for rats. This was followed by the hand-laying of toxic baits along tracks and in coastal areas for feral cats.

Removing the last predators from Raoul Island will free-up nearly 3000 hectares of habitat and allow threatened species to recover. At least 23 plant species and five of the Raoul’s 35 bird species are unique to the island.

This project will make the long-term survival much more certain for threatened birds such as the Kermadec storm petrel, white tern, masked booby, and the Kermadec kakariki. Most of these birds have been forced to live and breed on nearby small predator-free islets, but are expected to return to Raoul Island once the feral cats and rats have been eliminated.

It will be two years before the success of the operation can be determined, because any surviving rats will be difficult to detect in the rugged forests on the island.

Problems with introduced pests on Raoul Island date from European settlement on the island in the nineteenth century.

Settlers brought with them an array of animals and plants that remained after the people had departed. Goats were eradicated in the 1980s and other domestic animals removed, but rats and feral cats continued to decimate bird life.

Raoul, like other Kermadec islands, is uninhabited today apart from a small team of DOC staff and volunteers who undertake weed control work, take weather readings, and monitor regional seismic activity. Waters surrounding the Kermadec group were declared a marine reserve in 1998.

General information about the Kermadec Islands