Guest blog from Anna Feeney, LIFE Raft Communications and Volunteer Development Manager
It’s been a month since we first started putting bait down as part of the LIFE Raft rat eradication, and a lot has been going on both in and outside the field.
Some of us are looking ahead to February next year, when we will once again be working with the RDCA and Future Island-Island to host the NI Science Festival on Rathlin. This will be the third year in a row that visitors can come to Rathlin to hear about everything from astrology, to geology, to STEM storytelling and the science of rockets (or, at least, the science of how to make paper rockets go really, really high…). We are still finalising the schedule but keep an eye out here and on our social media for more information, and keep 12-23 February free in your diaries!
Pictures from 2024’s NI Science Festival on Rathlin Island
We have also arranged for another skip (the 17th!) to make its way to island, kindly paid for by Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council. Transporting bulky waste is a real logistical challenge for people living on islands, so these skips help Rathlin residents to clear their spaces which also means fewer places for rats to nest and store food.
Some of the LIFE Raft team after a hard day’s work filling the 17th skip brought to Rathlin
On the field side, we have been working with Rathlin landowners and our partners to design and produce new cow-proof bait stations. We deployed these in some of the fields after it was discovered that some of the island’s cows were extremely curious and interested in the previous bait stations. Big thanks to all the team, RSPB NI, NI Forestry, NI Water, and volunteer groups for providing the pipes, helping make these new bait stations, and placing them on island. Every eradication project throws up new challenges and provides new innovations and techniques and we hope that this new design can be part of future projects.
The team have had some pretty amazing views (and some pretty excellent snacks to keep up those energy levels)
All these bait stations on island need checking once a week, rain or shine, until the end of March. This takes a team of about 30 people, including an amazing group of residential volunteers. We are also looking for more volunteers who can help out just for a day (or more). This is a really fun way to get ‘behind the scenes’ of the project and see more of the island. Please share with anybody who might be interested!
Finally, Biz Bell, our eradication consultant from Wildlife Management International in New Zealand, arrived back on Rathlin today to advise on the next steps of the eradication. It’s possible that by Christmas 90% or more of the rats on Rathlin will be gone, and it’s the final 10% that will take the next three months of effort. For an eradication to be successful we need to be able to prove absence from every part of the island, which is why we have to be so thorough, and why we are so thankful to residents for allowing us access to their homes and gardens.
I’ll be back on Rathlin for a week in December and hope to see many of you then. When I left the island in October a whole pod of dolphins jubilantly escorted the ferry out of the harbour. Fingers crossed for an encore of dolphins when I return.