A special place... The Isles of Scilly are one of only two places in England where Manx Shearwaters breed
Under threat...The Isles of Scilly hold 3,000 fewer pairs of breeding seabirds than 25 years ago
The ink tracking tunnels are designed to track any signs of rat footprints, but there has been no rat sign now for over 8 weeks. Instead these tracking tunnels with a lure of peanut butter are proving popular with the Scilly shrews, who appear to have developed a slightly sweet tooth (they normally feed on insects).
The population of shrews appears to have risen very quickly since the rat removal work. Rats do predate shrews.
So the rat teeth sign we were finding on soap and chocolate wax blocks is being replaced with tiny shrew teeth marks and tiny shrew footprints in ink tunnels.
