MFM News got in touch with Peter Divall, past Chair of BirdLife KZN Midlands, to ask why his KwaZulu Natal Province bird club had decided to sponsor 22 hectares towards eradicating the introduced House Mice that have taken to attacking and killing Marion Island’s threatened albatrosses and petrels.  His heartening reply confirms that birders in South Africa have taken the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project to their hearts.

Peter and his wife, Anita, have written in response “BirdLife KZN Midlands had previously donated R5000 from Club funds towards this project in 2021.  Subsequent to this, when Clive Curtis, a KZN Midlands resident, was invited to speak at our November 2025 monthly meeting about the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage (on which he had been a passenger together with his two children), our committee agreed to a suggestion that we would use this opportunity, not only to inform our members and guests who may be aware of the plight of our precious seabirds, particularly the albatrosses, on Marion Island, but also to raise funds which could be donated to the project.  On a personal note, my wife Anita (who has just resigned as Club Secretary) and I were inspired to try to put together a meaningful contribution after listening to the talks during the Flock to Marion voyages, on albatrosses presented by the wonderful and inspiring Peter Harrison MBE, a Patron of the MFM Project.”

Peter Divall, former BirdLife KZN Midlands Chair, and Anita Divall, past Secretary, stepped down from the committee at the Annual General Meeting on 14 February 2026

Peter and Anita continue: “The R17 000 raised in November 2025 was a once-off event.  Prior to our evening meeting we advised members and guests that there would be a MFM Project donation box available.  In addition to this, we were also able to offer three copies of the beautiful ‘Roberts Sugarbirds and Sunbirds of Southern Africa’ coffee-table book, which had been donated by the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund through the very kind auspices of co-author Ingrid Weiersbye, a Trustee of the Fund and a member of our club.  These three books were offered to those who made the largest contributions on the evening.  We were delighted to receive some sizeable donations so were able to present copies of these books to three worthy donors.  Approximately 30 members of BirdLife KZN Midlands got to experience Marion Island’s seabirds at sea on the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage in January, surely inspiring them to contribute to the club’s fund raiser later in the year.”

BirdLife KZN Midlands was formed in 1989 after a split from BirdLife Port Natal.  The membership at the end of 2025 stood at 185, with 252 individual members.

 

Ingrid Weiersbye (right) with a Penguin Fundraiser at the club’s Mouse-Free Marion Project fundraising event

Peter and Anita Divall end by saying, “We feel that the success of the MFM Project is vital to the survival of some of the most iconic species of birds on our planet.  We need to try to do what we can to reverse the unthought results of actions all those decades ago when mice, and then cats, were introduced to one of the most pristine islands on earth.  Without the success of this intervention, we stand to lose more than we can imagine.”

 

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 25 March 2026

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An old male Wandering Albatross on Marion Island. Artwork by Shary Page Weckwerth of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature, after a photograph by Linda Clokie

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.