Great Saltee Rat Eradication Project - Readvertisement

To project manage the Great Saltee Rat Eradication Project, to undertake the required preparatory phases up to and including (subject to client approval) the operational planning and to carry out the implementation phases of the project.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG) is responsible for the conservation of natural habitats and species and the protection of biological diversity in Ireland.

The current draft of the Prioritised Action work (PAF) for the implementation of the Birds and Habitats Directives in Ireland pays particular attention to the vulnerability of our island seabird colonies to invasive mammalian predators. In the Department’s 2019 Article 12 Report, population decline or even local extirpation resulting from invasive mammals was identified as a serious threat particularly to those burrow nesting seabird species such as Manx Shearwater, Puffin and Storm Petrel. Work is underway with regard to planning for a national seabird biosecurity initiative to address this threat but varying levels of evidence are available to identify a number of sites where invasive predatory mammals are already established on islands that hold vulnerable and declining breeding seabird populations.

Great Saltee Island, part of Saltee Islands Special Protection Area, is listed for several seabird species including Puffin (for more information see https://www.npws.ie/protected-sites/spa/004002).

Relatively small populations of Manx Shearwater are also present during the breeding season on both Great and Little Saltee. Great Saltee is also host to the invasive Brown Rat. Rats are known to have very detrimental effects on seabird populations through predation and competition for food and habitat, causing local and global extinction of birds on islands throughout the world.

See RfT Document.