Giant mouse 'occupies' the island in the Atlantic Ocean

A remote island in the Atlantic Ocean is occupied by a giant "killer" mouse. Because carnivores are completely absent on the island, this rodent increases in size unimaginably and threatens the life of rare species, The Daily Mail said.

Gough Island is located in the South Atlantic Ocean, between Africa and South America. It is located in the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, in England. The island is not large, with a total area of ​​only about 68km ² , named so in honor of British navigator Charles Gough who passed through the island in 1731 and stopped here, describing its exact coordinates.

Because the island is too small and the climate is too cold, only a few people on the island work at the rotating meteorological station to live here. But a long time ago, some merchant boats stopped by the island and the house mice followed the ship, escaping to the island.

The mice were fat and grew very fast.

The house mouse that everyone knows from childhood found Gough Island as a great settlement. Since there are no carnivorous animals, the offspring are born with an extraordinary speed and their size also increases rapidly.

The average length of these new residents is up to 27cm (including the tail), while their mates currently live in the 'old country' (ie, the UK) are only 7 to 10cm long, rarely have one 11cm long, meaning that the mouse on the island is 1.5 times bigger than the largest mouse living on the continent.

According to biologists, there are now 1.9 million mice on every small island, each of which has 300 animals. These crowded mice don't have enough food, so they switch from 'old' food to anything.

For example, they scavenge bird eggs and young birds. They attacked rare species such as the endemic seagulls of Tristan and the Atlantic stormbirds were on their way to extinction. There is no such big sea bird in the world.

Scientists believe that the basic measure is to kill this rodent.'They cannot be ignored because they are a potential threat to the flora of the island and the plan must include the task of restoring and managing the ecosystem including regular killing of rats' , he said. Ross Wanless, Captown University lecturer said.

According to him, these giant mice are now experiencing "terrible hunger" and are ready to eat all they can get. Therefore, killing them at this time is quite convenient, simply dropping the island containing rat poison can cause them to die.