New Zealand’s Antipodes Islands – remote, wild, and special

An ambitious project to rid the remote Antipodes Island of introduced mice proved successful in 2018. Claire Concannon visits the spectacular subantarctic island to meet the locals - from penguins to megaherbs - and the people studying the wildlife. Plus, we learn about what's at stake in the next island eradication challenge for New Zealand.

Excitement rises on board the expedition yacht Evohe as the largest of the Antipodes Islands appears out of the mist.

These subantarctic islands are wild and remote - some 860km southeast of Rakiura Stewart Island. Their isolation, in a far-flung corner of the South Pacific, means they're some of the most untouched islands in the world.

They're also brimming with wildlife.

A wildlife hotspot

Department of Conservation rangers Jemma Welch and Erin Patterson will soon be landing to meet some of the wildlife and start their task: a whole-island count of the Antipodean albatross. Erin dreams of romping through megaherbs, while Jemma, a self-confessed seabird nerd will be in her element - 21 seabird species breed here.

It's an incredible landscape. Tussock growing in pillars up to two metres tall, pipits and snipe and parakeets roaming, albatrosses and petrels floating overhead, fur seals and elephant seal pups hauled up in the rocky coves.

With great biodiversity comes great responsibility

The Antipodes Islands, like the other subantarctic islands, have their own cultural and social history, alongside their incredible natural history.

In the early 1800s gangs of sealers decimated the fur seal population on these islands. Along the way mice were introduced. Remarkably - and fortunately - rats never established.

But the mice were enough to have a major impact. Their population swelled to huge numbers (an estimated 200,000 across the 21 km2 island). This multitude of mice munched their way through a large portion of the native invertebrates on the island - many of which are endemic, meaning they're not found anywhere else.

This drop in invertebrates had a knock-on effect: it reduced the amount of food available for insect-loving birds like the pipit and snipe. The mice themselves also disrupted burrowing seabirds. And there was another fear of what might be to come as gruesome footage emerged from other islands where mice had developed the disturbing behaviour of eating live albatross chicks as they sat on the nest. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details