
Invasive non-native predators can quickly decimate breeding colonies by eating eggs, chicks, and adult birds. We have seen this happen on islands all over the world, including Ramsey island on the Pembrokeshire coast. While a rat eradication was successful on Ramsey and many species, in particular the Manx Shearwater are increasing in numbers on the island, the Puffin population has not returned. While eradications can be successful, they are expensive, take years to plan and even if it is successful the species lost may never return.
The aim of the Biosecurity for Wales team is for all of our seabird islands to be protected against non-native invasive predators such as rats, and for everyone who lives on, works on or visits these islands to appreciate just how incredible they are and how important it is that we keep them rat-free.
Protecting these islands is relatively simple, it just requires people who visit these islands to be vigilant, to check their boat, cargo and luggage for any signs of stowaways before they sail to the island.
Good prevention is key to protecting the islands from rats, but we also need routine surveillance on-islands to quickly detect any invasive predators that evade the barriers in place. If an invasive animal or signs of an animal are found it is vital that we react immediately and remove the predator before it is able to negatively effect our seabirds, this is called an incursion response.
There have been 38 reported biosecurity incursions on islands designated as Special Protection Areas (SPA) for breeding seabirds around the UK since 2018 alone, these include shipwrecks, rats being spotted on island and signs of rodents including droppings, chew marks and urine trails on cargo bought over.
January
In January we held a work party at our North Wales Rapid Incursion Response Hub, during which we welcomed new volunteers, erected weatherproof sheds to keep our equipment safe and organised our kit.
We visited another primary school and gave our interactive session about biosecurity on seabird islands for 60 year 5 pupils. Greg and Jinx came along and did a Conservation Detection Dog demo for the children in the school yard which they loved!
Greg and Jinx started the year as they intend to go on by continuing their training. Jinx is a Conservation Detection Dog trained on the scent of rat, when he identifies the scent of rat he indicates to Greg who will then call Jinx away and go in for a closer look. Jinx will not capture or chase rats. As with any skill, Greg and Jinx stay at the top of their game by training regularly. A large part of Greg and Jinx’s time is taken up with continuation training and finding good training areas is made a lot easier in Pembrokeshire by the kind co-operation of several local businesses and charities who allow us to make use of their facilities. In addition to the RNLI (mentioned below) we would like to thank Dale Sailing, Voyages of Discovery, Mathias Hardware and Celtic Camping for their ongoing support.
Greg and Jinx doing a demo during a school visit. Photo: Olivia Pargeter
February
We attended the Friends of Skokholm and Skomer reunion/AGM in February, as well as catching up with some friendly faces and enjoying some brilliant talks, we also gave a presentation about our work keeping the islands safe from non-native invasive predators such as rats.
We invited Skomer and Ramsey island staff to visit our South Wales Rapid Incursion Response Hub before they headed back over to start the season. Our hubs contain all of the necessary kit for responding immediately to a report of a non-native invasive predator on one of our islands. We want island staff and our volunteers to be as familiar with our kit and hubs as possible so that in case of emergency, everyone knows what we have available and where it is stored.
We gave our interactive session to another primary school, this time the children made fantastic fact sheets about the species they had just learned about!
March
In March we held the second Welsh islands biosecurity forum meeting, bringing together island wardens, managers and staff from seabird islands all around Wales to discuss biosecurity, challenges and highlights and explore possible solutions. The aim of these forum meetings is to share knowledge across all of our spectacular seabird islands.
Before the seabirds returned to their nest sites and making the most of some calmer weather, the team met with island staff and conducted conservation dog checks on Skomer island with Jinx. As the island is so large, Jinx and Greg checked key areas that are likely to attract rats, we were happy that Jinx did not find anything. While the islands are able to deploy passive surveillance for non-native invasive predators, such as camera traps and wax chew blocks, Greg and Jinx being able to actively search for signs of rats is our most powerful tool.
Greg and Jinx were also busy checking barges loaded up with building materials heading out to Skomer ensuring that there were no stowaways hiding amongst bulky materials. Ensuring that high risk deliveries such as building materials, animal feed or hay are free from rats is far more time and cost efficient than launching an incursion response should a stowaway be discovered once the delivery reaches the island.
Greg and Jinx checking barges and building materials headed to Skomer. Photo: Greg Morgan
April
We returned to Caldey in April to discuss St Margaret's and their 2016 rat eradication, biosecurity and how we could help. While Caldey is home to an impressive selection of seabirds, the island itself is not currently designated SSSI or SPA for these and is therefore was not originally targeted in this project, however, due to it's connection with St Margaret's, which is a designated SSSI for its breeding seabirds we have been working with both islands to ensure that they remain rat-free. While we were on the island we set up camera traps to see what animals were about when the islands' humans weren’t about, we chatted to boat operators, island staff and residents as well as the The Cistercian Monks of Caldey about biosecurity, hearing tales of how rats had plagued the island until the successful eradication in 2016. Greg and Jinx spent 3 days searching numerous buildings, barns and sheds for any sign of rats but were impressed to find nothing. The islands' residents attended a talk by project staff and a demonstration from Jinx, learning more about biosecurity measures and how we can all work together to keep the island rat free.
After months of trying and several failed attempts due to the weather, the team finally managed to get Greg and Jinx over to the Skerries to conduct a Conservation Detection Dog check before the terns returned to breed. We chatted biosecurity with the island manager and boat operator, checked out the rodent surveillance present on the island and Greg and Jinx did a demo on island to show how Jinx lets Greg know that he smells rat. Jinx will put his nose to the source of the scent, for example a rat dropping, and sit tight until Greg calls him away to have a look for himself to confirm.
May
Biosecurity for Wales attended the Bardsey Island Trust AGM and gave a talk about our project and the importance of biosecurity for our seabird islands.
While Greg is island manager of Ramsey and he and Jinx are regularly on the island, they completed their official Ramsey island dog check in May.
On May 26th tanker “Midnight Glory” lost a lifeboat in st Brides Bay and after several failed attempts by the captain to retrieve it, sadly it smashed into Steep Bay on Skokholm island. The hatches of the life raft were open which was a big biosecurity concern as rodents could have accessed to the raft and hitched a lift over to Skokholm, the lifeboat also carries up to 200 litres of diesel which was lost onto the rocks and into the water in Steep Bay as hundreds of auks and gulls were incubating eggs and chicks above. The team went over to assist on the island on the 29th of May, the wardens and volunteers had already reacted quickly to set up extra surveillance, including camera traps and wax chew blocks and while the cliffs were much too steep to access the life raft, Greg and Jinx conducted a thorough check of the areas around the bay.
The life raft which crashed into Steep Bay on Skokholm triggering an incursion response. Photo: Olivia Pargeter
June
June was a busy month for Greg and Jinx! They returned to Skokholm island following the wrecking of the life raft on to the island in May to perform more checks and search areas that would attract rats if they had come ashore. Thankfully Jinx did not indicate on anything.
Greg and Jinx were called out for another incursion response, this time to a report of a rat sighted on another important seabird island. After a thorough check of the area by Jinx and Greg, and increased surveillance on the island, no signs were found and no further action was deemed necessary.
As more building materials were being transported over to Skomer Greg and Jinx carried out more barge checks, they also performed a mid-season Gower Ranger check to ensure that the Ramsey boat is travelling without stowaways.
July
Biosecurity for Wales attended Flat holm day in Cardiff with a stand. Flat holm is home to thousands of breeding gulls, including red listed Herring gulls and amber listed Lesser-black backed gulls and is just a short RIB ride from Cardiff marina. We have been working with Flat holm to increase their biosecurity measures, Jinx and Greg searched the island for rats over winter 2023 and we came away happy that the island was rat-free and we are all dedicated to keeping it that way!
We designed and ordered branded rat rope guards, these along with our branded rat chew cards are supplied to boat operators who regularly sail to and around our important seabird islands. Rat rope guards are a simple way of preventing rats boarding your boat while it's moored and rat chew cards are a no-fuss method of discovering rodents on your vessel, they contain a non-toxic bait encased in soft plastic which shows up rodent teeth marks as they access the bait.
Our shiny new branded rat rope guards and chew cards! Photo: Olivia Pargeter
August
The team took a stand to the Pembrokeshire County Show to raise awareness about biosecurity on seabird islands, the show attracts over 90,000 visitors over two days. We had some great conversations with a variety of people, from people who love their local seabird islands but hadn’t necessarily realised the threat posed to these islands by non-native invasive predators like rats to people who had no prior knowledge of our amazing seabird islands at all but were glad that we are working to protect them after we told them about Puffins and other amazing birds that need our help!
Biosecurity for Wales attended the National Eisteddfod in Pontypridd with the RSPB main stand, 186,000 people attend the event over 7 days so it's a fantastic place to raise awareness.
We held the third Welsh islands biosecurity forum meeting, we had brilliant attendance including representatives from seven of the islands covered by our project as well as NRW and WTSWW.
After many failed attempts over winter due to weather, we finally got Greg and Jinx over to Bardsey island to perform an island biosecurity detection dog check. While Conservation Detection Dog checks are an amazing active tool for searching for non-native invasive predators, we are limited to performing these checks outside of the main breeding season for seabirds. While Jinx is completely professional and solely focussed on sniffing out rats, unfortunately we can't explain that to the birds and they will still see him as a predator, the risks associated with disturbing breeding birds is higher than the benefits of Jinx performing routine searches on the islands so Jinx's routine visits are restricted to outside of the main breeding season.
Our stand at the Pembrokeshire show. Photo: Olivia Pargeter
September
Greg from the Biosecurity for Wales team gave a talk during the “Biosecurity after Eradication” webinar hosted by Biosecurity for Scotland. The talk was exploring lessons learned from Scilly, the Shiants, Lundy and Ramsey, being post rat eradication and all having successfully implemented biosecurity measures to prevent rats returning and re-establishing a population. The purpose of the webinar was to discuss how we can help safeguard seabirds on island sites across the UK using these islands as inspiration.
Greg and Jinx performed another island check on Ramsey and further barge checks for building materials being transported to Skomer.
We joined representatives from JNCC, Biosecurity for England, the Scilly islands, Rathlin LIFE Raft project and Flat holm island to discuss the future of seabird island biosecurity data collection and storage.
Representatives from various organisations meeting to plan biosecurity database. Photo: Tessa Coledale
October
The Biosecurity for Wales team were joined in St Davids by representatives from our NHLF committee, EcoDewi, Manx Shearwater Patrol, and RNLI St Davids. We had great chats about seabirds, biosecurity barriers that we can implement to prevent rats getting to islands, surveillance methods and they also had a brilliant Jinx demo on the Lifeboat in ST Davids RNLI station. Greg and Jinx have been very grateful to be allowed access to St Davids RNLI station to conduct training exercises in the station and on the boats, this is invaluable training for Jinx to prepare him for searching boats and having a dry place to train in the winter!
We held a mock incursion training session for our South Wales Hub, we invited volunteers and prospective volunteers, including staff and volunteers from some of the seabird islands. We met at the hub, collected the necessary equipment for our “incursion” and then travelled on to the Deer Park to lay out our incursion response. We were able to show attendees rodent teeth marks in wax chew blocks, showing the size difference between rat and mice chew marks.
We attended a Biosecurity workshop session held by APEM and NRW in Newquay, Ceredigion. This biosecurity planning is to prevent invasive species spreading around six of Wales’ Marine Protected Areas with a focus on marine invasives such as Slipper limpets.
The Biosecurity for Wales team and the Biosecurity for Scotland teams jumped at the chance to work together. We headed over to a Welsh seabird island currently undergoing a rat eradication with Greg and Jinx, as well as Rachel (handler) and Reid (Conservation Detection Dog) from B4S. Eradication work had ceased over the summer to avoid causing disturbance to the breeding birds, before the eradication work started up again over the winter, the dogs were invited to search the island to assess how widely spread the rats were. It was a great exercise for both dogs and handlers and we were happy to be able to help more with the eradication works.
Greg, Rachel, Jinx and Reid working together. Photo: Olivia Pargeter
November
The team took a stand to the Welsh Ornithological Society annual conference again this year, 160 people were present at the conference and there was such a buzz at the event. We had lots of interesting conversations with representatives from many organisations and really enjoyed the fantastic presentations.
Not satisfised with just one bird conference in November, the team also attended the 40th annual Pembrokeshire Bird Conference. Another brilliant day packed with interesting presentations, while tending our stand we caught up with some of our Rapid Incursion Response Hub volunteers and friendly island faces as well as introducing people to our project, we also presented a talk about our project and it’s work in Pembrokeshire.
December
During December we spent a day assisting with an ongoing rat eradication project on a Welsh seabird island. Having an active eradication project on an important seabird site in Wales really highlights the importance of biosecurity. Eradicating a population of rats once they have established on an island is difficult, expensive, and may not be successful, so prevention is always better than cure. Preventing invasive predators using barriers such as checking boats, cargo and bags for signs of stowaways including nest material, droppings, chew marks etc is ideal. However, if an animal did reach the island, it is very important that it be detected before a population has time to establish. Carrying out simple routine surveillance on-island allows us to quickly detect any invasive predators that evade the barriers in place. If an animal or signs of an animal are found, then an incursion response is triggered.
During 2024 22 dedicated new volunteers have joined our Rapid Incursion Response Hubs and 11 volunteers have taken a rodent management course which enables them to handle rodenticide safely and legally. These additions to the team further improve our ability to respond to incursions and prevent non-native invasive predators colonising our seabird islands.
In the background we have been busy working with island owners, managers, boat operators, communities and wardens to produce Biosecurity plans for islands. The aim of these biosecurity plans is to identify the native species that are at risk, identify the non-native species that pose the greatest risk and consider the pathways by which these species could reach the island. Once we have this information barriers and surveillance can be identified and implemented to reduce the likelihood of rats/mink etc arriving on the island and to ensure that anything that may arrive is discovered, reported and dealt with quickly.
North Wales Hub volunteers erecting storage sheds to keep our incursion kit safe and protected from the elements. Photo: Olivia Pargeter