Hawadax Island

Hawadax Island ; ( before 2012: Rat Island)
	NASA image of Hawadax Island
Waters	Pacific
Archipelago	Aleutian Islands
Geographical location	51 ° 48 ' N , 178 ° 18' E Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ' N , 178 ° 18' E
length	14 km
width	3.5 km
surface	26.7 km²
Highest elevation	193 m
Residents	uninhabited
	Map of the West Aleutian Islands, Hawadax in the east (13)

Hawadax Island ( Aleutian : Hawadax , until 2012 Rat Island ) is an island of the Aleutians and belongs to the group of Rat Islands . The island, located at the western end of the Aleutian Islands, is 26.7 km² and is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge . The island got its name in 1827 from the captain Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke , when he was sailing around the world to the Aleutians. The island and the rat islands surrounding it are characterized by strong seismic activity. In 1965, the island had a quake of the strength 8.7.

Rat population

There is a large population of rats on the island . When a Japanese ship stranded on the coast in 1780, many rats came to the island. The inadvertent settlement of these neobiota severely decimated the local seabird populations. The rats have now also spread to 16 neighboring islands. In order to protect the native flora and fauna from further destruction by the rats, they were fought in 2008 in a week-long campaign - with reference to the experience of Campbell Island / New Zealand - by throwing poisonous cookies from helicopters. This seems to have succeeded with only minor harmful effects on the other populations.

Web links

Description of the impact of the rat population (Engl.) ( Memento of 2 December 2007 at the Internet Archive )
reuters.com & alaska.fws.gov (PDF file; 1.8 MB) - Program for the extermination of rats (English) ( Memento from December 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Alaska's Rat Island rat-free after 229 years

Individual evidence

^ Hawadax Island ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved October 5, 2013.
↑ Success story Reuters June 2009 , article in Scientific American June 2009
^ The Rat Island rat eradication project: a critical evaluation of nontarget mortality. prepared for island conservation, the nature conservancy and the US fish and wildlife service, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Prepared by the Ornithological Council. Final report issued December 2010. See Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

[1] Hawadax Island ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved October 5, 2013.

[2] Success story Reuters June 2009 , article in Scientific American June 2009

[3] The Rat Island rat eradication project: a critical evaluation of nontarget mortality. prepared for island conservation, the nature conservancy and the US fish and wildlife service, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Prepared by the Ornithological Council. Final report issued December 2010. See Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge