Park rangers visit Anacapa Island and like what they see
Park rangers visited Anacapa Island Thursday to check for rats.
They only found signs of the rats’absence.
Ten years ago the park service made an effort to remove nonnative rats from the ecosystem. Some people criticized the plan to poison the rats, but supporters of the rat removal said they were killing seabirds, reptiles and plants.
Rangers reported finding birds called Ashy-storm-petrels nesting on the island. Something they had not seen before. They also saw expanding Cassin’s auklets territory. They noticed four times the number of Scripps murrelets nests and an increase in eggs hatches.
Visitors to the island also enjoyed yellow flowers called coreopsis in full bloom.
