South Georgia Heritage Trust Rodent Eradication For nearly two centuries millions of introduced rodents, which originally arrived in South Georgia as stowaways on whaling and sealing boats, were consuming the eggs and chicks of South Georgia’s ground-nesting birds. Since 2011, Quark Expeditions has supported the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT) and the Friends of South Georgia Island (FOSGI) to deliver a multi-year, multi-million dollar Habitat Restoration Project on South Georgia. The goal of the project was to restore the sub-Antarctic island to its original status as one of the world’s most important seabird sites. On 8 May 2018, SGHT announced that its Habitat Restoration Project had successfully eradicated rats and mice from South Georgia, freeing South Georgia’s birds and wildlife from over two centuries of predation. Already there have been extraordinary signs of wildlife recovery, with South Georgia pipits and South Georgia pintails being witnessed in greater numbers than ever before in living memory. To ensure the legacy of the Habitat Restoration project and the globally significant achievement of eradicating rats and mice from South Georgia, robust biosecurity measures are being implemented to ensure that rodents never return. Last year, Quark Expeditions contributed more than $46,000 USD to a rodent dog detection
team pilot project run by South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT). The project involved two rodent detection dogs and handlers from Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C). A successful pilot trial in early 2018 meant these specialist dog teams continued to carry out inspections of all ships and cargo bound for South Georgia during the 2018/19 Antarctic season with an aim to protect all native flora and fauna on South Georgia from alien invasive species. Beyond the biosecurity measures, an important focus of the SGHT is to enhance local skills and capacity and to establish a permanent biosecurity detector dog program for the region. During the trial, WD4C trained an additional locally recruited handler to establish a permanent base in Stanley for the program.
To learn more about South Georgia Heritage Trust visit sght.org
55 | For more information, contact Quark Expeditions at Sustainability@QuarkExpeditions.com
Powered by FlippingBook