Above picture: A feral cat feeds on the body of a White-capped Albatross chick close to fledging on Auckland Island; photograph by Stephen Bradley

The international conservation initiative, Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC), led by Island Conservation, Re:wild, and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has added three of New Zealand’s most ecologically rich islands into its ambitious effort to restore and rewild 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030.  The Department of Conservation and Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust have joined the IOCC to boost conservation efforts on the Chatham Islands. Stewart Island and sub-Antarctic Auckland Island  The addition of these three projects brings the total number of committed island-ocean ecosystems to 20 (click here).  Efforts are now being made to raise the necessary funds for the three restoration efforts.  Read more about the New Zealand island eradication plans here.

Scalped! A Grey-headed Albatross chick after nocturnal attacks by mice on Marion Island; photograph by Stefan Schoombie

Previously, BirdLife South Africa joined the IOCC by listing sub-Antarctic Marion Island, where the Saving Maion Island’s Seabirds. Mouse-Free Marion Project is working towards eradicating its albatross- and petrel-killing House Mice. Read more about Marion Island’s listing with the IOCC here and here.

 

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project. 20 March 2025

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“Good Friends”. Displaying Wandering Albatrosses, watercolour by Flávia F. Barreto of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the Mouse-Free Marion Project; after a photograph by Alexis Osborne

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