Ecuador Will Slaughter Rat 180 Million

Ecuadorian government plans to slaughter 180 million rats to exterminate rodents from the Galapagos Islands . How?

The government will send a helicopter that will drop 22 tons of bait in the bait with Pinzon Island , an uninhabited island in the archipelago within 600 miles of the coast of Ecuador .

Feed the cube -shaped bright blue is very attractive to rats , but not like other animals in the Galapagos .

However, 34 eagles were arrested Pinzon Island not to participate take the bait , while in Island Plaza Sur iguana also arrested for protection .

This is the second attempt is made ​​to kill rodents " immigrants " in the 19 series of islands that inspired Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of evolution . Ecuador's government hopes by 2020 all the rats in the Galapagos will be exhausted .

Norway rats and black rats brought aboard whaling ships and war ships that stop in the Galapagos in the 17th century . The rat is now the main predators of eggs Galapagos native animals , including the giant tortoise eggs , lava lizards , snakes , hawks , and iguanas .

Rats also destroy many major food crops are becoming a species native to the Galapagos .

" The mouse is one of the worst problems the Galapagos . These Animal reproduce every three months and eat everything , " said the expert Nature Conservancy , Juan Carlos Gonzalez .

" Destruction is a very large cost , but this was a necessary war , " said Gonzalez .

Pinzon Island which only has an area of ​​7 square kilometers inhabited by 10 rats in each square kilometer .

Meanwhile , Director of Conservation Galapagos National Park , Danny Rueda , rat carcasses ensure it will not cause new environmental problems .

" The poison in the bait specifically designed with a powerful anticoagulant . Was going to lead to a dead rat dried and crushed in less than eight days , " said Rueda .

Galapagos Islands since 1978 is set to be a world natural heritage by UNESCO . In 2007 , UNESCO declared the Galapagos conditions now threatened species immigrants , tourists , and immigrants .