Great Saltee Rat Eradication Project

Tender description

To project manage the Great Saltee Rat Eradication Project, to undertake the required preparatory phases up to and including (subject to client approval) the operational planning and to carry out the implementation phases of the project. Great Saltee Island, part of Saltee Islands Special Protection Area, is listed for several seabird species including Puffin (for more information see https://www.npws.ie/protected-sites/spa/004002). Relatively small populations of Manx Shearwater are also present during the breeding season on both Great and Little Saltee. Great Saltee is also host to the invasive Brown Rat. Rats are known to have very detrimental effects on seabird populations through predation and competition for food and habitat, causing local and global extinction of birds on islands throughout the world. Recent work on seabird islands in the UK where rats have been eradicated show pronounced increases in breeding Puffin and Manx Shearwater numbers e.g. Lundy (https://www.conservationevidence.com/individual-study/2241). The National Parks and Wildlife Service, together with input from University College Cork and the RSPB and with the support of the island’s owner, has undertaken preliminary steps through the collection of evidence (e.g. surveys of Puffin, Manx Shearwater and Brown Rat by UCC), the trailing of vegetation clearance and other logistics including the drafting of a bait station grid. NPWS is now in a position to progress the plan to eradicate Great Saltee of its rat population. See RfT document for further information.