Remote British Atlantic island is free of rats after eradication programme costing £10million

A remote island in the South Atlantic is finally free of rats and mice after the world’s biggest eradication programme took place at a cost of £10 million.

South Georgia has managed to get rid of the rodents for the first time in 200 years, after using sniffer dogs and hundreds of tons of poisoned bait.

Now, the British overseas territory is reportedly experiencing increased levels of birdlife, including the South Georgia pipit and the South Georgia pintail.

Rats are first believed to have made their way onto the island as stowaways when Captain Cook explored the territory in 1775.

The mission to eradicate rats from the island first began in 2011, and saw teams braving all climates in a bid to achieve their goal.

Three helicopters were also enlisted to cover all 269,000 acres of the island, dropping 300 tonnes of bait across the territory.

The poisoned bait was slow acting, allowing the rats to retreat to their burrows before dying in order to stop their poisoned remains to be eaten by birds.

Professor Mike Richardson, chairman of the project’s committee, said: ‘Over the last six months of work, not a single sign of a rodent has been found in the whole of the area.

‘To the best of our knowledge this island is rodent-free for the first time in almost two and a half centuries.’ The island is home to 33 species of nesting bird, penguins and seals, and biosecurity measures are in place to stop rodents getting ashore from visiting ships.