---
title: "An Australian seabird island is well on the road to recovery following the eradication of its alien rodents"
---

# An Australian seabird island is well on the road to recovery following the eradication of its alien rodents

 ![Lord Howe Ian Hutton](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Lord_Howe_Ian_Hutton.jpg)*A view of Lord Howe Island, photograph by Ian Hutton*

 Lord Howe Island is a [World Heritage natural property](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/186/) situated some 600 km off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, in the Tasman Sea.  In 2019 the [Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Project](https://lhirodenteradicationproject.org/) saw the end of the island's introdiced rodents ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/latest-news/the-acap-monthly-missive-australias-lord-howe-island-is-declared-free-of-introduced-rats-and-mice-following-a-successful-eradication-operation-in-2019?highlight=WyJsb3JkIiwiaG93ZSJd)).  Now five years on the island is blossoming with rediscoveries and recoveries of birds (such as the [Black-winged Petrel](https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/black-winged-petrel-pterodroma-nigripennis/text) *Pterodroma nigripennis* and [Providence Petrel](https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/providence-petrel-pterodroma-solandri) *P. solandri*), invertebrates and plants, many endemic to the island, as described and illustrated in a recent online [article](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-23/lord-howe-island-cloud-forest-rare-ecosystem-species-return/104407260?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0tsW5QNaTM0vBT5cOONTNPUCS0rteyw2AQ3Umk4POJeEXkeHJKtbAnJM8_aem__mS1BJaXy2bDkOcZ6-17ew).

 *27 November 2024*