INVASIVE RODENTS ON ISLANDS Invasive rats and seabirds after 2,000 years of an unwanted coexistence on Mediterranean islands

• Main Authors: F. Escribano, Æ P. Sposimo, Æ N. Baccetti, Æ M. Pascal, Æ D. Oro, L. Ruffino, M. Paracuellos, P. Sposimo, N. Baccetti
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Rattus rattus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.545.6458; http://www.almediam.org/PDF/Rats and seabirds.pdf

Abstract In the Mediterranean, the survival of endemic long-lived seabirds despite the long-standing introduction of one of the most damaging alien predator, the ship rat (Rattus rattus), on most islands constitutes an amazing conservation paradox. A database gathering information on approximately 300 Western Mediterranean islands was analyzed through generalized linear models to identify the factors likely to influence ship rat presence and to account for how ship rat presence and island char-acteristics may have driven the presence and abundance of seabirds. Our review showed that few Mediterranean islands remain rat-free. At the regional scale, rat presence was only a limiting factor in the abundance of the smallest seabird, the storm petrel