Applying lessons learnt from tropical rodent eradications: a second attempt to remove invasive rats from Desecheo National Wildlife Refuge, Puerto Rico

Abstract

The two rodent eradication attempts (failed, then subsequently successful) on Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico off er an opportunity to explore the challenges of tropical rodent eradications. Here, we highlight the key changes that were made to the operational strategy during the second attempt, the role of the recently developed recommended best practices for tropical rodent eradications from Keitt, et al. (2015), and chronicle the recently confi rmed successful project.