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Ants Gone! Seabirds Reclaim Paradise Isle
23 Aug
Summary
- Yellow crazy ants eradicated after ten years of effort on Johnston Atoll.
- Red-tailed tropicbirds can now nest in formerly unusable land.
- Conservation dogs assisted in the final stages of ant detection.
Johnston Atoll has been declared free of yellow crazy ants, a significant achievement following more than ten years of eradication efforts. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this success in 2021, marking the first full eradication of an invasive ant species from such a large land area in the United States.
These ants, which arrived before 2010, threatened native wildlife by spraying formic acid. They particularly impacted ground-nesting seabirds, including red-tailed tropicbirds, by making nesting areas unusable. The infestation covered approximately 70 acres of the 640-acre refuge.
A dedicated team, known as the Crazy Ant Strike Team, comprised nearly 100 staff and volunteers who worked for a decade. They logged over 130,000 field hours, testing various bait formulations and conducting extensive hand searches to eliminate the ants.
In the campaign's final phase, conservation detection dogs were employed in December 2020 to sniff out any remaining ants. This innovative approach, combined with persistent bait treatments and manual searches, ultimately confirmed the ants' eradication.
The focus now shifts to restoring habitat and preventing future introductions of invasive species. The tropicbird colony, with nearly 13,000 nesting pairs counted in 2021, is expected to expand into the reclaimed territories, a gradual victory for conservation.
