In 2005, French crews eradicated rats from Tromelin Island; by 2013, booby populations had more than doubled, and five seabird species later returned to breed

For centuries, rats on a tiny island in the western Indian Ocean had an outsized impact on its wildlife. They fed on seabird eggs and chicks, gradually reducing a once-diverse breeding community to just two species. Then, in December 2005, French conservation teams succeeded in eradicating Norway rats from Tromelin Island. The change was remarkably quick. By 2013, the populations of both red-footed and masked boobies had more than doubled, and within the following years five other seabird species returned to breed, including birds that had not nested there for more than a century.

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