On Little Barrier Island, also known as Hauturu, in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf, the removal of an introduced predator produced a striking change in the breeding fortunes of a native seabird. Pacific rats, known locally as kiore, had been eating the eggs and chicks of Cook’s petrels, a small burrowing seabird that nests on the island. According to PNAS , the 2004 eradication of Pacific rats was followed by a sharp increase in breeding success at two high-altitude Cook’s petrel sites, from about 5% before the eradication to 53% in 2005. The result provided evidence that rat predation had been an important factor behind the earlier breeding failures.
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