Field Support for the Great Saltee Rat Eradication Project

Tender description

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is responsible for the conservation of natural habitats and species and the protection of biological diversity in Ireland. 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. More recently a Project Advisory Group has been established to inform the planned actions to eradicate the rat population from Great Saltee. A Project Lead is already in place and will drive this eradication project forward but in order to undertake the necessary and various island based tasks associated with the project, NPWS is now inviting tenders for the provision of services of field support to help deliver the objectives of the Great Saltee Eradication Project. See RfT document