A small, remote Alaskan island in the Bering Sea with only about 350 people is searching for a potential phantom rat that a resident may or may not have seen outside her home in June. But for St. Paul Island, one of the four Pribilof Islands also known as the “Galapagos of the north” for its abundance of bird life, a single rat could spell disaster for the delicate ecosystem.
Rats often travel stowaways on ships and planes to remote islands and can quickly decimate native bird species by feasting on eggs and young. This is why the island takes even an unconfirmed sighting so seriously and takes extensive measures to detect a rat that may not exist.
“We know from seeing this on other islands and places in Alaska and around the world that rats are completely decimating seabird colonies, so this threat is not something that the community should take lightly,” said Lauren Divine, director of the ecosystem protection office for the Aleutian Community of St. Paul Island. Associated PressDivine likens this search to finding a needle in a haystack, saying, “not even knowing if a needle exists.”
After being alerted to the potential threat, wildlife officials have been searching the apartment complex where the sighting took place, crawling through the grass, around the building and onto the porch, looking for any signs of tracks, chew marks or droppings. Peanut butter-baited traps and trail cameras have also been set up in hopes of confirming the rat's presence, but so far nothing has been found.
But that hasn't stopped the search, which is likely to last months. Residents have been advised to be careful and authorities are in the process of getting permission from the USDA to bring a rat-sniffing dog to the island; dogs are also prohibited to protect the fur seals.
There are hundreds of other remote islands that have experienced and successfully combated rat infestations, such as “Rat Island” in Alaska's Aleutian Island chain, which was later renamed Hawadax Island. However, because extermination efforts can cost millions of dollars and take several years, places like St. Paul Island rely on prevention to eliminate rat populations.
The island has a long-standing rodent-monitoring program, including rat traps near the airport and along coastal areas where ships dock. In developed parts of the island, there are also preventive “chew” blocks made of beeswax to record incisor bites; some are made of ultraviolet material so inspectors can use black lights to look for droppings.
The last definitive sighting of a rat on St. Paul Island was in 2019, when it was thought to have entered the island from a barge. It was eventually found dead after a nearly year-long hunt, so Divine says authorities take even unsubstantiated sightings very seriously.