Charles Darwin: Specially Designed Poison Bait

Native Species Dept: A helicopter is to begin dropping nearly 22 tons of specially designed poison bait on an island Thursday, launching the second phase of a campaign to clear out by 2020 non-native rodents from the archipelago that helped inspire Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, according to CBC. The rats have critically endangered bird species on the 19-island cluster 1,000 kilometres from Ecuador's coast and the unique bird and reptile species that make the Galapagos Islands a treasure for scientists and tourists must be preserved, Ecuadorean authorities say and that means the rats must die, hundreds of millions of them. The invasive Norway and black rats, introduced by whalers and buccaneers beginning in the 17th century, feed on the eggs and hatchlings of the islands' native species, which include giant tortoises, lava lizards, snakes, hawks and iguanas. Rats also have depleted plants on which native species feed. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.