Six helicopters will drop 550 tons of poison on this island: Why a project is spending $10 million on this exercise |

Mice are some of the most invasive animals on the planet. Quick to enter and escape they have managed to make many a human mind burst with anger and panic. The max that can be done about them is setting up a trap or spreading some poison around. But imagine an island filled with mice running around, disturbing the flora and fauna and creating absolute mayhem. What would you do then? Apparently, hire six helicopters to drop a whopping 550 tons of poison on the land.Marion Island, a subantarctic island managed by South Africa is the target of a large-scale eradication project where all the focus is on removing the mice from the island. This is because the tiny rodents have begun attacking live seabirds, leading conservationists to plan a death trap.

A mouse takeover

Marion Island is located in the southern Indian Ocean about 1,900 kilometres from Cape Town, in a cold, wet and isolated region near Antarctica. For a long time, this isolation favoured the reproduction of seabirds without the presence of terrestrial mammalian predators.But in the early 19th century, mice made a grand entrance on the island, accidentally through the ships used by seal hunters. Without the presence of sufficient natural predators and faced with birds that had not yet developed defences against this type of threat, they made a home out of the entire island.In recent decades, scientists have noticed that mice have started to attack live birds including chicks and adults in a phenomenon documented by researchers and conservationists in a few places around the world. Records show the rodents feeding on the heads of the albatross chicks.Estimates indicated more than a million mice on Marion Island, feeding on invertebrates, seeds and increasingly on seabirds in nests, as per the Associated Press.

The dominating population

The growth of the mouse population on the island is also associated with climate change. In a conversation with the Associated Press, Anton Wolfaardt, the manager of the Mouse-Free Marion project said that the higher temperatures have made the island colder, drier and more favourable for rodent reproduction.“They are probably one of the most successful animals in the world. They have reached all kinds of places,” said Wolfaardt. Commenting on the situation on Marion Island, he stated that “their breeding season has been extended, and this has resulted in a huge increase in mouse density.”Scientifically, mice are expert reproducers. They can start reproducing around 60 days of age, with females having the capability to have several litters a year with seven or eight pups in each. On an island without any permanent residents, available food and few natural obstacles, the accelerated reproduction transforms from an accidental introduction to a rising ecological threat.

Protecting native species

The action is conducted by the Mouse-Free Marion project, a partnership between BirdLife South Africa and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment of South Africa. It is aimed at reducing the pressure on albatrosses, petrels, penguins and other seabirds that breed on the island, which is a special nature reserve. It hosts a meteorological and research station and has no permanent population.In February 2026, the project reported receiving a donation pledge of US $10 million from an international foundation based in Switzerland. With the financial commitment, the initiative stated it had reached about 60% of the necessary goal to proceed with the next steps.The strategy involves distributing bait with rodenticide throughout the island. The goal is to cover all areas occupied by mice, as the survival of a single pregnant female could compromise the operation, according to project managers. In the plan described by the Associated Press, four to six helicopters would be used to drop up to 550 tons of bait. Pilots would follow defined routes while the team would monitor the distribution through GPS mapping.Before complete eradication, an aerial test is planned between April and May 2027 in an area of approximately 1,000 hectares of Marion Island. It is planned to evaluate equipment, flight routes, logistical coordination and the method’s response on the island’s terrain.It has about 30,000 hectares, irregular terrain, unstable climate and remote location, factors that elevate the operational difficulty and reduce the margin for coverage failures. According to the South African National Antarctic Program, feasibility studies have identified aerial distribution of bait by GPS-guided helicopters as the recommended method for an island of Marion’s size and topography.According to a statement published by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, this phase should use a helicopter and evaluate strategy, equipment and logistics in conditions considered difficult by the organisers.

Why does it matter?

Albatrosses and petrels living on the island had evolved in an environment where they did not need to protect themselves from small mammals attacking their nests at night. Therefore, according to researchers, many chicks remain in place even when they start being bitten by mice.This is worrying for specialists since many seabirds have a slow reproductive cycle. Albatrosses take years to reach sexual maturity and usually produce only a few offspring throughout their lives. Continuous loss of offspring can affect a population for decades.The project states that 19 of the 29 bird species that breed on the island could disappear locally if the mice are not eradicated. Marion Island has an important role in the ecological system as a breeding area. Together with neighbouring Prince Edward Island, it forms a remote territory used by birds that spend much of their lives at sea and rely on protected islands for nesting.Previously, in the 1940s, about 2,000 feral cats had been introduced to the island to reduce the presence of mice near the scientific base. In the 1970s, these feline beings were associated with the death of hundreds of thousands of seabirds annually. The elimination of the cats took years and included the introduction of a feline flu virus and the hunting of the surviving animals. The population was removed in the early 1990s, but the mice remained and continued to spread across the island.Wolfaardt told AP that there is no “perfect solution” in this type of situation. “There is nothing that simply eliminates mice and nothing else,” he said. The bait was designed not to affect the soil or water sources of the island.While the project focuses on ensuring the seabirds are not affected, some animals may suffer individual impacts. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment of South Africa stated, according to the AP, that the eradication of mice is “essential if the island’s unique biodiversity is to be preserved.”