The recent news is from New Zealand where they are planning to wipe out all the rats from the country. They not just want the country to be rat free but also want to wipe out opossums and stoats. The scheme is planned so that there is a larger number of birds in the country. Not only will it boost the numbers of birds but also help taxpayers to save millions that are spent on pest control every year.
The plan is really ambitious, and it was planned by the former Prime Minister John Key.
- New Zealand has a new environmental goal. The nation is going be rat free in future. Not only rats are going to leave New Zealand but opossums and stoats will bid goodbye as well.
- This ambitious scheme is introduced to boost the birds’ population in the country. And also to help save millions that the country spends every year on pest control.
- New Zealand never had rats in the history, as the predators arrived they brought rats along. Who mainly came through the ships. For fur, trade opossums were brought and stoats were brought to control rabbits.
- But all this ruined the forest habitat and birds and their eggs fell as their prey. New Zealand lost more than 40 species of the birds. The number of rats is more than the human population.
- In order to wipe out the rats, they are developing new traps and genetic weapons. They have volunteer trappers and many became after the rare species of bird disappeared.
- They say that each country has its heritage like China has the Great Wall of China, and New Zealand has its birds.
- Conversation Minister Maggie Barry says the benefits of killing all the rodents are so many, they will get rid of a lot of toxins, he also says “the momentum has been fantastic. Street by street, town by town, city by city, we will join forces and achieve things.”
- And we are thinking that is right to kill one species in order to conserve the other?
Also read: Dealing with The Menace of Possums and More
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