Sorry for the extended absence; I’ll try to be more better…

To follow up on the previous discussion, another project included in the Montrose Restoration Plan is similar to the one for San Miguel, and is called Restore Seabirds to San Nicolas Island (SNI), which in this case means eradicate feral cats. Cats have been on SNI since the early 1900’s, and were brought to the island in part to keep the native deer mouse population under control. (This is probably not the dumbest idea humans ever had, we did for example think that legally prohibiting people from drinking would actually stop people from drinking, but it ranks right up there…)

There is no question that feral cats on SNI have impacts on native species, perhaps most importantly on the endangered island night lizard (INL); the Fish and Wildlife Service has for example said that the Navy on SNI has not done enough to reduce cat impacts on INL to consider delisting. Additional impacts likely include some level of competitive interactions with island foxes and predation of deer mice, though neither of these pressures probably has population-level impacts on either species. But just like the issue of removing rats from San Miguel, the impact of cats on seabirds on SNI is unknown, and could be negligible for precisely the same reason that seabirds are not common on San Miguel (the presence of island foxes).

But cats are a different animal than rats, and should be removed from islands whenever possible. The plan to remove cats from SNI as it currently exists is a good one, and should proceed. But as of this date the feasibility study for the project has not been made public (or is well-hidden if it has). Hopefully this will be available soon, and the project can begin early next year.

It is, though, unfortunate that ‘restoring seabirds’ has become the catch phrase for justifying the eradication of feral animals from the islands; the effort has merit on its own and should be evaluated based on facts, not fiction.