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title: "No sign of rats on Lehua Island, a Hawaiian albatross home, after poison bait drop"
---

# No sign of rats on Lehua Island, a Hawaiian albatross home, after poison bait drop

Lehua is a small, uninhabited island sanctuary in the USA’s Hawaiian chain that supports populations of breeding seabirds, including small numbers of ACAP-listed Black-footed *Phoebastria nigripes* and Laysan *P. immutabilis* Albatrosses ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1600-acap-breeding-site-no-58-lehua-island-hawaii-supports-black-footed-and-laysan-albatrosses?highlight=WyJsZWh1YSIsImxlaHVhJ3MiXQ==)).  Following an unsuccessful attempt in 2009 to eradicate the island’s Pacific Rats *Rattus exulans,**a second attempt was made this year over August and September with three successive poison bait drops by helicopter ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/en/14-news/latest-news/2834-second-time-lucky-rat-eradication-has-commenced-by-aerial-bait-drop-on-hawaii-s-lehua-island?highlight=WyJsZWh1YSIsImxlaHVhJ3MiXQ==)).*

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Lehua from air.jpg)

 Lehua Island

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Lehua Black-foots 2 Eric Vanderwerf S.jpg)

 Black-footed Albatrosses on Lehua Island, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

 It is usual to wait two years with no sign of rats before formally confirming a treated island is rodent free. However, according to news reports this week the signs for Lehua are already good a month after the last bait drop with no rat sightings or sign and abundant seabird breeding activity recorded on a post-treatment visit: “the island was full of fat, healthy wedge-tailed shearwater [*Ardenna pacifica*] chicks and we saw no negative impacts of the bait drop.” ([click here](https://www.islandconservation.org/lehua-island-no-rats-plenty-chicks/)).

 A 28-minute documentary entitled “Lehua Island - Restoration of a Tropical Bird Paradise” will be shown on Hawaii TV this weekend ([click here for viewing details](https://www.islandconservation.org/lehua-island-restoration-bird-paradise/)).

 Read more news reports on the eradication attempt [here](http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/lehua-update-no-rats-plenty-chicks/article_36466dbc-7bb7-5a5c-9847-b9e02d7aeeef.html) and [here](http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/10/the-rats-of-lehua-appear-to-have-taken-the-bait/).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 October 2017*