Above picture: Anton at the start of the 34th Rhodes Trail Run, holding the official buff of Marion Island’s 80th Overwintering Team (2023/24) that depicts displaying Wandering Albatrosses; photograph by Leigh Wolfaardt

On 29 June, Anton Wolfaardt, Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project Manager, ran the arduous 52-km Rhodes Trail Run in South Africa’s southern Drakensberg mountains in midwinter to raise much needed funds for the project via an online GivenGain crowdfunding appeal.  The total of R 103 623 raised comes from 93 separate donations made online over two months, and from a single generous contribution made directly to the project by a MFM Patron, by the time the appeal closed on 23 July.  This sum is far more than the original target of R 55 000 set by Anton.

Anton is awarded a gold medal at the prize giving for being the third Master (50-60 years) to finish; photograph by Leigh Wolfaardt

Anton writes to MFM News: “I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every person who generously donated to my Rhodes Trail Run fundraising appeal for the Mouse-Free Marion Project.  Every donation, no matter its size, has brought us one step closer to our goal and has helped us to continue our important work to secure a favourable conservation future for Marion Island and its threatened seabirds.  Thank you once again for your support, it is both humbling and inspiring.”

As well as raising such an impressive sum, Anton is to be congratulated for coming third in his age class in this year’s mountainous trail run, improving his finishing time from his previous run in 2019 by more than half an hour to an impressive seven hours and two minutes  over the 52-km course (click here).

It was very cold at the start line at sunrise, so Anton and Leigh Wolfaardt were well rugged up! Photograph from Leigh Wolfaardt

With over a hundred thousand Rands raised, Anton’s crowdfunding appeal is the fourth undertaken online on behalf of the MFM Project.  The previous three appeals came close to, or achieved doubling (and in one case tripling), their original targets, raising a combined total of R 72 000. This reflects the interest in and support for eradicating Marion’s introduced House Mice that are continuing to attack and kill the island’s threatened seabirds.  As for the previous appeals, the results will be recorded on the MFM Project website’s Sponsor a Hectare Honour Roll.  With 103 hectares (at R 1000/ha) registered, Anton’s appeal is the first to fall into the prestigious “Wandering Albatross” category, along with only 11 other sponsors.  Readers who wish to support the MFM Project can sponsor their own hectare (or more) here.

Regular followers of MFM News should look out for announcements of future MFM crowdfunding appeals.  Three exciting appeals are being planned; they all entail members of the MFM Project team and their supporters clocking up the kilometres by walking, running or cycling. For some of us, all three!

Thanks to Leigh Wolfaardt for the use of her albatross artwork and photographs, and for her support of Anton and the MFM Project.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 25 July 2024

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The four albatross species of the Prince Edward Islands that breed on Marion Island are at risk of local extinction from attacks by the introduced House Mice; artwork by Leigh Wolfaardt

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.