The rat control program on the island of St. Helena

• Published in: Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference
• Main Authors: Key, Gillian, Hudson, Ray
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2000
• Subjects: Rattus norvegicus; Rattus rattus; St. Helena; environmental health; eradication; rodent control; rats; Norway rat; Roof rat; island; Life Sciences; Norway; Ocean Island
• Online Access: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8t81963m

St. Helena is an Atlantic Ocean island lying 1,200 miles off the coast of Angola. Both species of commensal Rattus occur on the island, the ship rat (R. rattus) having possibly arrived as early as 1502, the year of the island’s discovery, and the brown rat (R. norvegicus) in the 1700s. Today, rats a...