Feral ferrets eradicated from isle

A “WORLD-FIRST” conservation scheme has successfully eradicated feral ferrets from a Northern Irish island to protect thousands of seabirds.

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(From left) Claire Barnett, RSPB area manager for Northern Ireland, Kirsty Benton, LIFE Raft Eradication Delivery Manager, David Quinney Mee, from Rathlin Development and Community Association, and Erin McKeown, LIFE Raft Programme Manager

(TOM MCDONNELL/RSPB/PA WIRE)

Rathlin Island, off the north coast of County Antrim, is home to Northern Ireland’s biggest seabird colony, with more than 250,000 birds including puffins, razorbills, guillemots and Manx shearwaters breeding and nesting there each year and providing a major nature tourism draw.

It is also home to a population of corncrakes - a ground-nesting bird which is extinct in the rest of Northern Ireland.

But the birds have been under severe pressure from a population of feral ferrets, which have been on the island since being introduced in the 1980s and which prey on eggs, chicks and even adult birds.

The “LIFE Raft” partnership, led by the RSPB and working closely with the community on the island, has used trapping, camera and thermal drone surveillance and a detection dog called “Woody” to eradicate the animals, a domesticated relative of polecats.