Rat Poison Dropped on East Anacapa Island

After more than a month of delay, the National Park Service dropped thousands of poisoned pellets over East Anacapa Island on Wednesday morning in a long-planned effort to kill its population of black rats.

An animal advocacy group had tried to block the $700,000 eradication program in Channel Islands National Park, contending that the poison would harm other wildlife on the three islets of the island off the Ventura County coast.

But a U.S. District Court judge ruled last month that the park service could proceed with the plan, aimed at saving the Xantus’ murrelet, a small and rare bird that nests on the island. The rats prey on the birds and their eggs.