Lord Howe Island species making comeback after rodent eradication

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Threatened species on the world heritage-listed Lord Howe Island are making a significant comeback. Five years after a multi-million-dollar New South Wales government rodent eradication project, rare ecosystems on the pristine island are thriving.

Transcript

00:00The mountain summits at the southern end of Lord Howe Island are often veiled in mist,

00:09home to a rare island cloud forest supporting about 85 per cent of the island's endemic

00:15plant species.

00:17Some plants over millions of years have evolved just to live on that summit.

00:21But the island's biodiversity has been under threat from rats and mice.

00:26In 2019, more than 350,000 rodents were eradicated.

00:32The bounce back since then of more than 30 threatened plant and animal species has been

00:38remarkable.

00:39We're just now, five years later, seeing the beginning of a renaissance of this island.

00:45The ground-dwelling Lord Howe Island wood hen, once on the brink of extinction, is now

00:50a common sight.

00:52Wood hen numbers, they have gone from about 200 wood hens five years ago to over 2,000

00:59wood hens now.

01:00Fifth generation islander Jack Schick has scaled to the tallest summit, Mount Gower,

01:06more than 2,000 times, amazed by the transformation of the forest.

01:12Plants that are coming up, so the rats would have eaten all those seeds.

01:16The amount of birds that are coming back too, silver eyes, like the smaller birds in particular,

01:21silver eyes, golden whistlers, black-winged petrels, some of the seabirds, just unbelievable.

01:27Blow me out of the water, I can't believe it.

01:29Here at the towering summit of Mount Gower, the cloud forest ecosystem is regarded as

01:35one of the most rare and fragile in the world.

01:38Scientists say Lord Howe Island is a barometer for climate change and the ability of species

01:45to adapt.

01:46As the world is warming up, often those clouds are disappearing.

01:51Places like the cloud forests are getting much drier and they basically go into drought

01:55and can't exist anymore.

01:57Researchers are tracking temperature and vegetation changes in the cloud forest.

02:03At sea level, the recovery of the world's most southerly coral reef is also being monitored

02:09after a coral bleaching event in late summer.

02:12Keeping pests out remains a priority.

02:15Sniffer dogs check all arrivals and do regular island checks for rodents.

02:21Such a unique and special place, I think to preserve that we have to work hard to protect it.

02:29Efforts at all levels to preserve a paradise reclaimed.

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