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Good practice Imported

Selvagem Grande Rabbit & Mouse Eradication — Restoring a Strict Nature Reserve

Portugal · Selvagem Grande · See the Portugal profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 84% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Madeira's Natural Park removed European rabbits and house mice from the 270 ha Selvagem Grande island using ~17,000 brodifacoum bait points, eliminating rabbits within a month inside a Strict Nature Reserve and Natura 2000 site holding European Diploma status.

270 hectares
Island area treated (2001-2002)
17,000 brodifacoum bait points (12.5x12.5m grid)
Bait points deployed (2001-2002)
about 1 month
Time to eliminate rabbits (2001-2002)
about 6 months
Additional time to eliminate mice (2001-2002)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Parque Natural da Madeira (Madeira Natural Park)
Period
2001-2002
Region (NUTS)
PT30
Keywords
biodiversity, invasive species management, protected areas, seabird conservation

Context

The Selvagens Islands are classified as a Strict Nature Reserve, sit within the Natura 2000 network as both a Special Conservation Area (9,455 ha) and Special Protection Area (124,530 ha), hold the Council of Europe's European Diploma for Protected Areas, and are a BirdLife International Important Bird Area.

Objectives

In 2001-2002 Parque Natural da Madeira carried out a rodent- and lagomorph-eradication campaign on Selvagem Grande, a 270-hectare island roughly 280 km south of Madeira, to remove the European rabbit and house mouse, which were grazing native vegetation and, in the case of mice, suspected of taking eggs and chicks in the island's seabird colonies.

Activities

Around 17,000 individual brodifacoum bait points were laid out on a 12.5 x 12.5 m grid, supplemented by hand-seeding of bait on cliffs and slopes too steep for stations.

Results

Rabbits were eliminated within roughly one month; mice proved harder to remove and required a further six months of targeted baiting before the island was confirmed rodent- and rabbit-free (Oliveira et al., 2010, Integrative Zoology).

Conclusions

The cited study documents successful removal of both invasive species but does not itself report post-eradication seabird population counts, so the biodiversity benefit is inferred from habitat protection status rather than a measured population rebound.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — No cost figure is stated in the source; conservatively estimated as 'medium' based on the scale of a single-island, ~7-month bait-station eradication campaign of this type, noted as inferred, not stated.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Campaign ran from 2001 to 2002, with rabbits eliminated within about one month and mice within a further six months (total under one year).
Staffing & skills
Parque Natural da Madeira (Madeira Natural Park) -- campaign implementation

Conditions for success

  • Dense, systematic bait-station grid (12.5x12.5m) supplemented by hand-seeding on inaccessible cliffs/slopes ensured full island coverage
  • Extended baiting period (total ~7 months) allowed complete removal of the harder-to-eradicate mouse population
  • Existing protected-area status (Strict Nature Reserve, Natura 2000) provided institutional backing for the campaign

Common failure modes

  • Mice proved substantially harder to remove than rabbits, requiring six times longer targeted baiting
  • No post-eradication seabird population monitoring was conducted, leaving the biodiversity benefit unverified by direct measurement

Where it fits

Governance type
regional/national park authority
Scale
single small island (270 ha)
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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