Island Extinctions
Island Extinctions
Islands contain some of the world's most distinctive biological communities. Geographic isolation allows plants and animals to evolve independently for thousands or millions of years, producing unusually high levels of endemism. The same isolation that creates unique biodiversity, however, can make island species exceptionally vulnerable to extinction. Species restricted to a single island or archipelago often have small populations, narrow geographic ranges and ecological adaptations that evolved in the absence of mammalian predators, competitors or major human disturbance.
The history of island extinction extends far beyond the modern conservation era. Archaeological and paleontological evidence shows that waves of extinction frequently followed human settlement of previously isolated islands. Hunting, burning, forest clearing and the introduction of rats, pigs, dogs and other animals transformed ecosystems that had evolved without comparable pressures. In many archipelagos, the species encountered by European explorers represented only a fraction of the biological diversity that had existed before earlier human colonization.
Modern island extinctions continue this pattern through a combination of habitat destruction, invasive species, disease, overexploitation and increasingly climate change. Birds, reptiles, mammals, plants, mollusks and other organisms confined to islands have consequently accounted for a disproportionate share of documented historical extinctions.
At the same time, islands have become some of the most important testing grounds for ecological restoration. The removal of invasive predators, restoration of native vegetation and reintroduction of threatened species have demonstrated that severe ecological decline can sometimes be reversed.
Why Islands Are Especially Vulnerable
Island ecosystems are shaped by isolation. Colonizing species may arrive only rarely, after which their descendants evolve into forms found nowhere else on Earth. This process can produce spectacular adaptive radiations, but it also creates species with extremely restricted distributions.
Many island animals evolved without terrestrial mammalian predators. Flightlessness, ground nesting, slow reproduction, unusually tame behavior and other adaptations were advantageous or harmless in their original environments but became liabilities following the arrival of humans and introduced predators.
Small geographic ranges create another vulnerability. A continental species may occupy thousands or millions of square kilometers, allowing populations to survive localized disturbances. An island endemic may occur on only a few square kilometers. A cyclone, wildfire, disease outbreak, invasive predator or episode of habitat destruction can therefore affect nearly the entire species at once.
Island populations are also frequently small. Once populations decline, genetic diversity may fall, breeding opportunities become limited and random events can have increasingly large effects. Species can therefore cross extinction thresholds rapidly.
These characteristics help explain why islands contain both extraordinary concentrations of endemic biodiversity and extraordinary concentrations of extinction.
Human Settlement and Prehistoric Extinctions
Some of the largest island extinction events occurred before written historical records.
The colonization of remote Pacific islands provides one of the clearest examples. Archaeological evidence indicates that human settlement caused the disappearance of enormous numbers of birds throughout Polynesia, Melanesia and neighboring regions. Estimates suggest that hundreds, and possibly more than a thousand, populations or species of nonpasserine landbirds disappeared following human colonization of Pacific islands.
These losses included rails, pigeons, parrots, waterfowl, seabirds and numerous large flightless species. Hunting was important, but human settlement also brought forest clearing, fire and introduced animals such as the Polynesian rat.
New Zealand experienced an especially dramatic wave of extinction after Polynesian settlement. Moa, a diverse group of large flightless birds, disappeared within a relatively short period. Ancient DNA indicates that moa populations were not already undergoing a severe natural decline immediately before human arrival. Hunting and landscape transformation appear to have been decisive.
Other New Zealand birds, including giant eagles, adzebills, ducks, geese, owls and numerous smaller species, also disappeared during successive phases of human settlement.
Similar patterns occurred across Tonga, New Caledonia, Hawaiʻi and many other Pacific islands. Fossil discoveries repeatedly reveal that the modern fauna of these islands represents only the surviving remnants of much richer prehistoric ecosystems.
Hawaiʻi and the Loss of Endemic Species
The Hawaiian Islands represent one of the world's most striking examples of both evolutionary diversification and extinction.
Isolation produced extraordinary radiations of birds, plants, insects and land snails. Human settlement subsequently introduced hunting, habitat modification and new animals. European colonization brought additional habitat destruction along with rats, cats, ungulates, mosquitoes and diseases.
Hawaiian birds have suffered particularly severe losses. Fossil evidence documents numerous species that disappeared after Polynesian settlement, while many additional species vanished after European contact.
Surviving Hawaiian honeycreepers remain threatened by avian malaria. Introduced mosquitoes transmit the disease, and historically cooler high-elevation forests served as refuges where mosquito populations were limited. Rising temperatures increasingly allow mosquitoes and malaria to reach these higher elevations, reducing the remaining disease-free habitat.
The poʻouli illustrates the severity of the crisis. Discovered on Maui in 1973, the species declined rapidly and is now presumed extinct.
Hawaiian land snails have experienced an equally remarkable extinction crisis. Some island snail faunas may have lost the majority of their original species. Rats, predatory snails, habitat destruction and other introduced organisms continue to threaten many survivors.
The death in 2019 of George, the last known individual of the Hawaiian tree snail Achatinella apexfulva, became a widely reported symbol of these losses.
Invasive Predators and Ecological Collapse
Introduced predators are among the most important causes of island extinction.
Rats have colonized islands throughout the world, often arriving aboard human vessels. They consume eggs, chicks, reptiles, invertebrates, seeds and plants. Because many island species evolved without mammalian predators, even relatively small rats can transform entire ecological communities.
Cats, mongooses, pigs, dogs and mice have produced similar effects.
Guam provides one of the clearest examples of ecosystem collapse caused by a single introduced predator. The brown tree snake reached the island after World War II and spread rapidly. Guam's native forest birds had no evolutionary experience with such a predator.
The result was catastrophic. Most native forest bird populations collapsed, with several species disappearing from the wild on Guam.
The ecological consequences extended far beyond the birds themselves. Birds had dispersed seeds, controlled insects and participated in other ecological processes. Their disappearance reduced seed dispersal, altered forest regeneration and contributed to major increases in spiders and other organisms formerly controlled by insect-eating birds.
The Guam rail was eventually declared extinct in the wild but survived because captive populations had been established. Conservation breeding and releases on predator-free islands subsequently allowed the species to recover sufficiently that its status improved.
The sihek, or Guam kingfisher, similarly survives through captive conservation programs while efforts continue to establish populations in environments free from brown tree snakes.
Famous Island Extinctions
Some of history's best-known extinct animals were island species.
The dodo of Mauritius became one of the most recognizable symbols of extinction. The large flightless bird disappeared after European settlement of the island during the seventeenth century. Hunting contributed to its decline, but habitat change and introduced mammals were also important components of the ecological transformation of Mauritius.
Neighboring Mascarene islands experienced numerous additional extinctions. Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues once supported distinctive birds, reptiles and other organisms that disappeared after human settlement.
The Galápagos Islands provide another famous example. Giant tortoises were heavily exploited by sailors, while introduced animals altered island vegetation and competed with native species. Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island tortoise, became an international conservation symbol before his death in 2012.
On Christmas Island, the extinction of the Christmas Island pipistrelle and the loss of native reptiles demonstrated that island extinctions remain possible even in the modern conservation era. Researchers have examined these cases as examples of how delays in management can allow rapidly declining populations to pass the point where recovery remains practical.
Caribbean and Atlantic Island Extinctions
The Caribbean once supported a much richer native mammal and bird fauna than survives today.
Fossil and archaeological research from Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas has revealed extinct rodents, insectivores, bats, birds and reptiles. Their disappearance did not occur in a single event.
Some species survived Indigenous settlement for thousands of years before disappearing during later periods of intensified human disturbance and European colonization. Others declined earlier as hunting, habitat transformation and introduced animals altered island ecosystems.
The Bahamas provide particularly detailed fossil records. Research from sites such as Abaco has identified separate waves of faunal change associated first with climatic and sea-level changes and later with human occupation.
Atlantic islands experienced similar transformations. St Helena suffered extensive plant extinction after centuries of deforestation, grazing and biological invasion. Tristan da Cunha and neighboring islands experienced bird declines following permanent human settlement and introductions of invasive mammals.
Gough Island demonstrates the continuing severity of invasive predators. Introduced house mice evolved unusually large body sizes and began attacking seabird chicks, including chicks vastly larger than the mice themselves. The resulting mortality threatens several globally important seabird populations.
Madagascar and Indian Ocean Extinctions
Madagascar provides one of the world's most dramatic examples of relatively recent megafaunal extinction.
The island formerly supported giant lemurs, elephant birds, pygmy hippopotamuses, giant tortoises and other large animals. Many survived until relatively recently in the Holocene.
Research indicates that their disappearance was associated with complex interactions among human settlement, hunting, fire, pastoralism, livestock introductions, habitat transformation and climatic variability.
Elephant birds included some of the largest birds ever known. Fossil bones, eggshells and ancient DNA have allowed researchers to reconstruct their diversity, ecology and evolutionary history.
The disappearance of Madagascar's large animals also altered wider ecosystems. Large herbivores and seed dispersers had shaped vegetation and provided ecological resources for other species. Their extinction therefore produced consequences extending beyond the lost species themselves.
The long evolutionary history represented by Madagascar's extinct mammals cannot quickly be replaced. Studies of the island's evolutionary diversity suggest that recovering an equivalent amount of unique mammalian evolutionary history through natural diversification would require millions of years.
Extinction Cascades and Lost Ecological Functions
Extinction rarely affects only the species that disappears.
Island ecosystems contain networks of interactions among predators, prey, pollinators, seed dispersers, plants, decomposers and nutrient cycles. Removing one important species can therefore produce cascading effects.
Guam's bird losses illustrate this principle. Once seed-dispersing birds disappeared, the movement of seeds through forests declined. Tree recruitment and forest dynamics changed.
Other island ecosystems have experienced the loss of large herbivores, pollinators or fruit-eating animals that once maintained vegetation communities.
Seabirds are particularly important ecological connectors. They feed at sea and deposit nutrients on breeding islands through guano, eggs, feathers and carcasses. These marine-derived nutrients can fertilize island vegetation and eventually influence coastal waters and coral reefs.
When invasive rats suppress seabird colonies, this nutrient transport declines. Research has shown that rat eradication can allow seabirds to return and gradually restore ecological connections between terrestrial islands and surrounding marine environments.
Island extinction should therefore be understood not only as the disappearance of individual species but also as the erosion of ecological processes.
Climate Change and Future Island Risk
Climate change introduces additional pressures into ecosystems already affected by habitat loss and invasive species.
Sea-level rise threatens low-lying islands and coastal habitats. Species restricted to narrow coastal zones may have nowhere to migrate if development, cliffs or other barriers prevent movement inland.
Changes in temperature and rainfall can alter vegetation and freshwater availability.
Warming can also interact with invasive species and disease. Hawaiʻi provides an important example, where warmer temperatures allow mosquitoes carrying avian malaria to reach elevations that previously served as refuges for native birds.
Island species may be particularly vulnerable because many cannot shift their geographic ranges. A continental species responding to warming may gradually move hundreds of kilometers toward cooler climates. A species confined to the summit of a small island may simply run out of habitat.
Research examining island mammals, reptiles, plants and other organisms consequently identifies many island endemics as highly vulnerable to future climate change.
Extinction Debt
Not every extinction occurs immediately after habitat destruction.
An ecosystem can retain small populations for decades or centuries even when the environmental conditions necessary for their long-term survival have already disappeared. This phenomenon is known as extinction debt.
Research on islands including the Canary Islands and St Helena suggests that historical habitat destruction may have created substantial extinction debts among plants, invertebrates and other organisms.
A species can therefore appear to have survived a major ecological transformation while actually declining slowly toward eventual disappearance.
This has important conservation implications. Protecting only species that are already critically endangered may be insufficient. Populations that appear stable today may already be responding to habitat fragmentation or ecological changes that occurred generations earlier.
Restoring habitat and ecological interactions before populations reach extremely low levels may prevent these delayed extinctions.
Island Restoration and Predator Eradication
Despite the severity of island extinction, islands also offer unusual opportunities for conservation.
Their isolation makes it possible, in some circumstances, to remove invasive species completely. Rats, cats, goats, pigs and other introduced animals have been eradicated from hundreds of islands.
New Zealand has been a global leader in this approach. Predator removal from offshore islands has created refuges where vulnerable native species can survive and reproduce without introduced mammals.
Kākāpō conservation relies heavily on predator-free islands. The large flightless parrot disappeared from most of its former range after the introduction of mammalian predators, but intensive conservation has maintained a surviving population in carefully managed refuges.
Anacapa Island in California's Channel Islands provides another restoration example. The removal of invasive black rats was followed by increased nesting success among native seabirds.
The Channel Islands fox recovered after conservationists addressed a more complicated ecological cascade. Introduced pigs supported golden eagle populations, and the eagles preyed heavily on the endemic foxes. Removing pigs and managing golden eagles allowed fox populations to recover dramatically.
On islands around the world, successful eradications increasingly demonstrate that ecological decline is not always irreversible.
Rewilding and Restoring Lost Functions
Some conservation programs go beyond preventing extinction and attempt to rebuild ecological relationships lost when native animals disappeared.
Reintroductions can return surviving species to islands from which they were locally eliminated.
In other cases, conservationists consider whether closely related species can perform ecological functions once provided by extinct animals.
The restoration of giant tortoises provides a prominent example. Tortoises influence vegetation through grazing, seed dispersal and physical disturbance. Returning tortoises to islands where native populations disappeared may therefore restore ecological processes in addition to conserving the animals themselves.
Such efforts can be controversial. Modern island ecosystems have changed, sometimes dramatically, since extinct species disappeared. Reintroductions must therefore consider invasive species, habitat availability, disease, genetic identity and potential unintended consequences.
Nevertheless, island restoration increasingly treats ecosystems as networks of ecological functions rather than simply collections of species.
What Island Extinctions Reveal About Biodiversity
Island extinction provides an unusually clear demonstration of how biodiversity responds to rapid ecological change.
Because islands are geographically bounded, scientists can often reconstruct human arrival, invasive-species introductions, habitat transformation and extinction with greater precision than is possible across large continents.
These records reveal several recurring patterns.
Species with extremely restricted ranges are vulnerable to disturbances affecting only a small area. Animals that evolved without predators can be devastated by introduced mammals. Slow-reproducing species may be unable to withstand even modest hunting pressure. Habitat destruction can create extinction debts that unfold over centuries. The disappearance of one species can trigger ecological changes throughout an ecosystem.
Island evidence also shows that human impacts did not begin with industrialization. Prehistoric societies transformed many island ecosystems long before modern economic development. European colonization frequently added another major wave of hunting, habitat destruction, disease and introduced organisms.
Modern globalization has accelerated the movement of species between islands and continents, while climate change adds new pressures to already fragmented ecosystems.
At the same time, restoration projects demonstrate that decisive intervention can produce remarkable recoveries.
Conservation Lessons
Island extinctions offer several broad lessons for conservation.
Preventing invasive species from reaching islands is generally easier and less expensive than removing them after establishment.
Rapid intervention matters. Species with tiny populations can decline beyond recovery while management decisions are still being debated.
Protecting habitat alone may not be sufficient when invasive predators, disease or disrupted ecological interactions remain.
Eradicating invasive mammals can provide benefits extending beyond individual threatened species by restoring vegetation, seabird colonies, nutrient cycles and marine-terrestrial ecological connections.
Conservation should also recognize extinction debt. Species that remain present may nevertheless require intervention before populations reach visibly critical levels.
Finally, restoration demonstrates that islands can function as ecological laboratories where conservation strategies can be tested, measured and refined.
Conclusion
Islands have produced some of the most remarkable evolutionary experiments on Earth and some of the most severe extinction crises.
From the moa of New Zealand and the dodo of Mauritius to Hawaiian honeycreepers, Caribbean mammals, Madagascar's elephant birds and Guam's vanished forest birds, the history of island extinction repeatedly shows what can happen when organisms evolved in isolation encounter rapid human-driven ecological change.
Hunting, habitat destruction, invasive predators, introduced disease and other pressures have eliminated hundreds of island species, while fossil evidence suggests that the true number of prehistoric losses is much larger than the historical record indicates.
The consequences extend beyond the vanished organisms. Extinction can eliminate pollination, seed dispersal, herbivory, predation and nutrient transport, reshaping entire ecosystems.
Yet islands also provide some of conservation's most encouraging examples. Predator eradication, captive breeding, habitat restoration and species reintroduction have allowed populations and ecological processes to recover in places where extinction once appeared inevitable.
The history of island extinction is therefore both a record of extraordinary biological loss and a demonstration that targeted conservation can prevent future extinctions and, in some cases, rebuild damaged ecosystems.
Global Patterns and Scale of Island Extinction
| Bren Ram | Island Conservation | 2025
Introduces a global database documenting invasive vertebrate eradication projects and their importance for preventing island extinctions.
Reviews the interaction between climate change and invasive alien species and notes the extraordinary concentration of invasion-linked extinctions on islands.
Finds especially large opportunities to reduce extinction risk through invasive-species management in the Canary Islands, Madeira and Azores.
| José María Fernández-Palacios et al. | PNAS Nexus | 2025
Synthesizes 220 documented endemic terrestrial extinctions across the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde.
| Multiple authors | PLOS Biology | 2025
Finds that recent genus-level extinctions are overwhelmingly concentrated among island-endemic birds, mammals, reptiles, mollusks and arthropods.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2025
Reconstructs plant-frugivore communities on 120 islands and finds extensive losses of native seed-dispersing birds, mammals and reptiles.
| BirdLife International | BirdLife DataZone | 2023
Reviews documented bird extinctions since 1500 and shows that the overwhelming majority have involved endemic island species.
| Multiple authors | Scientific Reports | 2022
Reviews more than a century of invasive-vertebrate eradications on nearly 1,000 islands and documents their growing importance in preventing extinction.
| BirdLife International | BirdLife International | 2021
Explains why islands are global epicenters of bird extinction and describes restoration work on Rapa Iti and other threatened islands.
| BirdLife International | BirdLife International | 2021
Reports encouraging population responses after invasive predators were removed from six islands in French Polynesia.
| Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2021
Warns that island biodiversity remains exceptionally vulnerable, with island species accounting for a disproportionate share of known modern extinctions.
| Tammana Begum | Natural History Museum | 2020
Examines how bird extinctions and introduced species have transformed ecological relationships in Hawaii, New Zealand and the Mascarene Islands.
| John C. Cannon | Mongabay | 2019
Reports research identifying 169 islands where invasive-mammal eradication could produce especially large benefits for threatened native vertebrates.
| Andrew Tye, ed. | IUCN | 2018
Provides practical guidelines for preventing, controlling and eradicating invasive species in vulnerable island ecosystems.
| Mike Gaworecki | Mongabay | 2018
Describes the Threatened Island Biodiversity Database and the concentration of highly threatened vertebrates on islands with invasive predators.
Examines island mammal extinctions from the Late Pleistocene to the present and finds that human arrival, island size and body size strongly influenced extinction patterns.
| Dena R. Spatz et al. | Science Advances | 2017
Maps highly threatened vertebrates and invasive species across the world's islands to identify major opportunities for preventing extinctions.
| Jamie R. Wood et al. | Environmental Conservation | 2017
Reviews the causes and chronology of island extinctions and considers how reintroductions can restore ecological functions lost with extinct species.
Summarizes research showing that controlling invasive vertebrates on islands could benefit a large proportion of the world's most threatened island species.
| Shannon R. McCreless et al. | Nature Communications | 2016
Analyzes more than 1,000 islands to estimate both the historical and future effects of invasive mammals on threatened island vertebrates.
| Tim S. Doherty et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2016
Quantifies the global role of invasive predators in bird, mammal and reptile extinctions, with island endemics suffering especially severe losses.
| University of California, Santa Cruz | ScienceDaily | 2016
Summarizes evidence that managing invasive mammals could avert many predicted island-level vertebrate extinctions.
| Multiple authors | PLOS ONE | 2012
Reviews global bird extinctions and finds that most recorded species and subspecies losses since 1500 occurred on oceanic islands.
| C. Josh Donlan et al. | Journal of Applied Ecology | 2008
Examines why invasive predators cause extinctions on some islands but not others and identifies ecological factors that can help prioritize eradication efforts.
| Dov F. Sax and Steven D. Gaines | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2008
Reviews species invasions and extinction on islands, emphasizing the disproportionate effects of introduced predators on native island animals.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2005
Maps species facing imminent extinction and demonstrates the extraordinary concentration of both threatened and historically extinct vertebrates on islands.
| Tim M. Blackburn et al. | Science | 2004
Shows that bird extinction rates across 220 oceanic islands are strongly associated with the number of introduced predatory mammal species.
| BirdLife International | BirdLife DataZone | 2004
Explains how extremely small ranges make many island-endemic birds exceptionally vulnerable to invasive species and other disturbances.
| Lyndon Wester | Journal of Historical Geography | 1991
Reconstructs the transformation of Másatierra in the Juan Fernández Islands through goats, rats, cats, deforestation, hunting and species extinction.
Pacific Islands and New Zealand
| New Zealand Department of Conservation | Department of Conservation | 2026
Explains how invasive mammals have been removed from numerous New Zealand offshore islands to rebuild native ecological communities.
| New Zealand Department of Conservation | Department of Conservation | 2026
Reviews New Zealand's long history of island predator eradication and the creation of more than 100 predator-free islands.
| New Zealand Department of Conservation | Department of Conservation | 2026
Describes how predator-free islands have become essential refuges for kākāpō after introduced mammals eliminated them from most of their former range.
| New Zealand Department of Conservation | Department of Conservation | 2026
Details the predator-free islands used to protect and rebuild the critically vulnerable kākāpō population.
| Julien Louys et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2021
Finds little evidence that early Pleistocene hominin settlement routinely caused island extinctions, contrasting with the dramatic losses of the later Holocene.
| Richard N. Holdaway et al. | Nature Communications | 2014
Demonstrates that a surprisingly small human population was sufficient to drive New Zealand's moa to extinction through hunting and habitat alteration.
| Morten E. Allentoft et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2014
Uses ancient DNA to show that moa populations were large and genetically viable immediately before humans reached New Zealand.
Discusses newly recognized extinct birds, nearly all of them island species lost through hunting, introduced predators or other human pressures.
Estimates that human colonization of remote Pacific islands caused the extinction of nearly 1,000 nonpasserine landbird species alone.
Assesses extinction risk among Pacific island fishes, land snails and reptiles and identifies habitat destruction and invasive species as major threats.
| Jeremy Hance | Mongabay | 2013
Reports research estimating that prehistoric settlement of Pacific islands eliminated more than a thousand bird species.
| Jeremy Hance | Mongabay | 2013
Uses Samoa's highly threatened tooth-billed pigeon to illustrate the continued extinction vulnerability of isolated Pacific island birds.
| David W. Steadman | Earth-Science Reviews | 2003
Surveys the enormous late-Quaternary extinction of Pacific island birds and discusses possibilities for ecological restoration.
| David W. Steadman et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2002
Uses archaeological evidence from Tonga to show that iguanas and several bird species disappeared extremely rapidly after human settlement.
| David W. Steadman et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 1999
Shows that substantial prehistoric bird losses also occurred on New Ireland, a large and heavily forested Melanesian island.
| David W. Steadman | Science | 1995
Synthesizes archaeological evidence suggesting that prehistoric human activities eliminated enormous numbers of Pacific island bird species.
| Multiple authors | Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | 1995
Reconstructs centuries of human occupation on Henderson Island and its associated bird extinctions, burning and ecological transformation.
| David W. Steadman | Journal of Archaeological Science | 1989
Reviews prehistoric bird losses across Eastern Polynesia, including extensive extinctions of rails, pigeons, parrots and seabirds.
| David W. Steadman and Storrs L. Olson | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 1985
Documents human-caused bird extinctions on Henderson Island, once mistakenly believed to have remained untouched by people.
Hawaiian Islands
| University of Hawaiʻi | UH News | 2026
Reports that avian malaria is now widespread across Hawaiian bird communities and remains a major driver of honeycreeper declines and extinctions.
| Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources | DLNR | 2026
Profiles the poʻouli, a Maui honeycreeper discovered only in 1973 and now presumed extinct.
| Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources | DLNR | 2026
Describes the precarious condition of Hawaiian tree snails threatened by rats, predatory snails, chameleons and habitat loss.
| University of Hawaiʻi | UH News | 2026
Reviews evidence that extinction rates among island land snails reach 80 percent or more on some volcanic islands.
| Christopher C. Kyriazis et al. | U.S. Geological Survey | 2025
Uses genomics from ʻakikiki, ʻakekeʻe and the extinct poʻouli to examine population collapse and the prospects for Hawaiian honeycreeper recovery.
| Multiple authors | Biodiversity and Conservation | 2025
Documents the disease-driven collapse of Kauaʻi's native forest-bird community as introduced species become increasingly dominant.
Places Hawaiian forest restoration within an archipelago where extraordinary numbers of endemic birds, plants and invertebrates have already disappeared.
| National Park Service | National Park Service | 2021
Explains how warming temperatures are allowing disease-carrying mosquitoes to invade high-elevation refuges used by Hawaiian honeycreepers.
| Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources | DLNR | 2019
Reports the death of George, the last known individual of the Hawaiian land-snail species Achatinella apexfulva.
| Robert H. Cowie et al. | Integrative and Comparative Biology | 2018
Assesses how many Hawaiian land snails may survive and outlines conservation measures needed to prevent further extinctions.
| Robert E. Ricklefs | The American Naturalist | 2017
Examines the historical biogeography of Hawaiian honeycreepers and repeated losses of species and island populations after human colonization.
| Satoshi Chiba and Robert H. Cowie | Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics | 2016
Reviews the extraordinary diversification and equally extraordinary extinction crisis of land snails on oceanic islands.
| Claire Régnier et al. | Conservation Biology | 2015
Finds severe, previously underestimated extinction within Hawaii's hyperdiverse Amastridae land-snail family.
| J. Stephen Athens | Archaeology in Oceania | 2002
Examines prehistoric Hawaiian bird extinctions and argues that introduced Polynesian rats played a major role in lowland ecological change.
| David W. Steadman et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 1987
Uses dated fossil bones from Maui to document the late-Holocene disappearance of numerous Hawaiian bird species.
Guam and the Mariana Islands
| Carlyn Kranking | Smithsonian Magazine | 2026
Reports new chicks of the extinct-in-the-wild sihek, or Guam kingfisher, and efforts to establish the species on predator-free Palmyra Atoll.
Uses Guam's brown tree snake invasion as a leading example of how introduced species can cause multiple island extinctions and disrupt human communities.
| Multiple authors | Conservation Science and Practice | 2022
Models how far brown-tree-snake populations would need to be suppressed before native birds could safely be reintroduced to Guam.
| Smithsonian National Zoo | Smithsonian Magazine | 2020
Describes the rescue of the Guam rail after invasive brown tree snakes drove the species extinct in the wild on its native island.
| Multiple authors | PeerJ | 2018
Finds that landscape-scale bird loss on Guam is associated with major increases in honeydew-producing insects and non-native ants.
| Haldre S. Rogers et al. | Nature Communications | 2017
Shows how snake-driven bird losses on Guam disrupted seed dispersal and sharply reduced recruitment of native forest trees.
| Haldre S. Rogers et al. | PLOS ONE | 2013
Uses Guam as a natural experiment to show how the disappearance of birds can halt seed dispersal between intact and degraded forests.
| Haldre S. Rogers et al. | PLOS ONE | 2012
Finds dramatic increases in spider abundance after invasive snakes eliminated Guam's insect-eating forest birds.
| Gordon H. Rodda and Julie A. Savidge | Pacific Science | 2007
Reviews the biology of Guam's invasive brown tree snake and its role in eliminating native birds, bats and lizards.
| Gary J. Wiles et al. | Conservation Biology | 2003
Reconstructs the decline of Guam's birds and shows that nearly all native species were severely affected after the brown tree snake invasion.
| Julie A. Savidge | Ecology | 1987
Provides the classic demonstration that the introduced brown tree snake caused the collapse and extinction of Guam's native forest-bird community.
Mascarenes, Seychelles and Christmas Island
| Multiple authors | Molecular Ecology | 2026
Uses modern and ancient DNA from Madagascar turtle doves to examine colonization, hybridization and conservation problems across Indian Ocean islands.
| Multiple authors | Scientific Reports | 2024
Reconstructs the decline of the Mascarene petrel and connects recent bottlenecks with introduced predators, deforestation and other human pressures.
| Mauritian Wildlife Foundation | Echo News | 2020
Describes the dramatic recovery of the Mauritius echo parakeet from roughly a dozen surviving birds to a much larger wild population.
| Seychelles Islands Foundation | Kapisen | 2019
Presents Seychelles case studies showing how invasive-species removal and habitat restoration can prevent further island biodiversity losses.
| Delphine Angst et al. | Scientific Reports | 2017
Uses dodo bone histology to reconstruct its growth, breeding and molting cycle while reviewing the species' rapid disappearance after European settlement.
Announces the extinction of the Christmas Island pipistrelle after its rapid unexplained decline during the preceding decades.
| John C. Z. Woinarski et al. | Conservation Biology | 2017
Examines management failures surrounding the preventable extinctions of the Christmas Island pipistrelle, Christmas Island forest skink and Bramble Cay melomys.
| Julian P. Hume et al. | Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology | 2016
Reconstructs the dodo's ecosystem and evaluates the relative roles of hunting, habitat change and introduced mammals in its extinction.
| A. S. Cheke | Cambridge University Press | 2010
Reviews the ecological history of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues with particular attention to vertebrate extinctions and introduced species.
| Christmas Island Expert Working Group | Australian Government | 2010
Reviews the ecological crisis on Christmas Island following the collapse of the pipistrelle and growing concern about other endemic species.
| Stéphane Baret et al. | Austral Ecology | 2006
Maps invasive plants on Réunion and explains their significance for the survival of the island's remaining endemic biodiversity.
| Multiple authors | Annales de Paléontologie | 2005
Uses dodo remains from Mauritian cave shelters to explore evidence for direct human predation on the extinct bird.
| Julian Pender Hume, David M. Martill and Christopher Dewdney | Nature | 2004
Reexamines historical records to refine the likely extinction date of the dodo on Mauritius.
| Alison J. Impey et al. | Biological Conservation | 2002
Describes the recovery of the Rodrigues fody against the backdrop of extensive historical bird extinction and ecological degradation on Rodrigues.
Galápagos, Channel Islands and Atlantic Islands
| Kunjal Bastola | Smithsonian Magazine | 2026
Reports the return of giant tortoises carrying Floreana ancestry more than 150 years after the island's native tortoise population disappeared.
| National Park Service | Channel Islands National Park | 2026
Explains the ecological chain through which introduced pigs enabled golden eagles to colonize the islands and nearly eliminate endemic island foxes.
| Carlyn Kranking | Smithsonian Magazine | 2026
Follows efforts to return the extinct-in-the-wild Socorro dove to its Mexican island after habitat destruction and introduced cats eliminated the wild population.
| Multiple authors | iScience | 2024
Uses the extinct dodo and Rodrigues solitaire to explore how historical changes in island area may have shaped their contrasting behavior and ecology.
| National Park Service | Channel Islands National Park | 2022
Documents the eradication of invasive rats from Anacapa Island and the subsequent recovery of native seabirds and other wildlife.
| Multiple authors | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2020
Examines centuries of plant extinction on St Helena and warns that large extinction debts remain after historical habitat destruction and biological invasions.
| Multiple authors | Journal of Ornithology | 2018
Reconstructs local bird extinctions on Tristan da Cunha following permanent human settlement of one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands.
| Linda J. Cayot | Galápagos Conservancy | 2014
Uses the story of Lonesome George to examine the extinction of the Pinta tortoise and debates over restoring ecological functions after extinction.
| Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2013
Finds major improvements in Scripps's murrelet nesting success after invasive black rats were eradicated from Anacapa Island.
| National Park Service | Channel Islands National Park | 2013
Reports dramatic seabird recovery ten years after rats were removed from Anacapa Island.
| National Park Service | Channel Islands National Park | 2013
Describes the rapid recovery of the Channel Islands fox after golden eagles, feral pigs and other ecological pressures were addressed.
Demonstrates how introduced pigs indirectly pushed Channel Islands foxes toward extinction by supporting a new population of golden eagles.
| Robert P. Reynolds and Ronald W. Marlow | Charles Darwin Research Station | 1983
Describes the precarious status of Lonesome George and recounts the historical exploitation and invasive-species pressures on Galápagos tortoises.
Climate Change, Extinction Debt and Future Island Risk
| Shreya Dasgupta | Mongabay | 2025
Reports that reptiles confined to islands face disproportionately high extinction risk while receiving comparatively little scientific attention.
| Multiple authors | Nature | 2024
Demonstrates the extraordinary concentration of global plant endemism on islands and finds that island endemic plants face exceptionally high levels of extinction risk.
| Camille Leclerc, Franck Courchamp and Céline Bellard | Nature Communications | 2020
Identifies climate-change vulnerability hotspots among mammals endemic to islands and emphasizes their limited ability to shift ranges.
| Simon Veron et al. | Scientific Reports | 2019
Maps island vulnerability to future temperature, rainfall and sea-level change and assesses the potential loss of unique evolutionary history.
| Multiple authors | Scientific Reports | 2017
Assesses how climate change, rising seas and increasing wave exposure threaten endangered terrestrial vertebrates across Pacific islands.
| Rüdiger Otto et al. | Diversity and Distributions | 2017
Finds substantial unpaid extinction debt among endemic plants and invertebrates following historical habitat destruction in the Canary Islands.
| Patrick Weigelt et al. | Nature | 2016
Shows that sea-level changes since the Last Glacial Maximum reshaped island area and isolation in ways that still influence endemic biodiversity today.
Caribbean Islands and the West Indies
| Alejandro Valenzuela, Enric Torres-Roig and Josep Antoni Alcover | The Holocene | 2026
Provides new dates linking the disappearance of Hispaniola's extinct island-shrews with the arrival of invasive black rats.
| Lazaro Willian Viñola-López et al. | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2022
Reconstructs the extinction chronology of Hispaniola's endemic rodents and finds that many survived until relatively late in the Holocene.
| David W. Steadman and Janet Franklin | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020
Reconstructs Bahamian bird communities and documents widespread extinction and island-level extirpation associated with both climate change and humans.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2020
Provides new radiocarbon evidence for the timing of endemic vertebrate extinctions in Cuba relative to Indigenous and European settlement.
| Jessica A. Oswald et al. | Scientific Reports | 2020
Uses ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating to reconstruct the changing distribution of the Bahamian hutia under centuries of human influence.
| Jessica A. Oswald et al. | Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | 2019
Recovers ancient DNA from the extinct Creighton's caracara and places the lost Caribbean predator within the caracara evolutionary tree.
| Multiple authors | The Auk | 2018
Reconstructs the late-Quaternary bird community of New Providence and documents numerous extinct or extirpated island species.
| Nathan S. Upham | Journal of Mammalogy | 2017
Reviews the extraordinary Holocene collapse of native mammal diversity on Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
| Multiple authors | Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics | 2017
Argues that human activities dominated Holocene mammal extinction in the West Indies through hunting, habitat transformation and introduced species.
| David W. Steadman and Janet Franklin | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2017
Examines the disappearance of bluebirds and crossbills from the Bahamas during major post-glacial climate and sea-level change.
| David W. Steadman et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2015
Uses thousands of fossils from Abaco to separate earlier climate-related vertebrate losses from later extinctions following human settlement.
| David W. Steadman and Janet Franklin | Journal of Biogeography | 2015
Identifies two major waves of bird loss on Abaco: one associated with late-Pleistocene environmental change and another following human colonization.
| American Museum of Natural History | AMNH | 2015
Summarizes fossil research linking the disappearance of several Bahamian bat populations with the period of human occupation.
| Samuel T. Turvey et al. | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2007
Uses radiocarbon dates to show that several native Puerto Rican mammals survived for thousands of years after Indigenous settlement but disappeared later.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2007
Describes exceptionally preserved fossils from Sawmill Sink on Abaco that reveal a far richer prehistoric island vertebrate community.
Macaronesia and Mediterranean Island Extinctions
| Robert H. Cowie et al. | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | 2026
Reviews the exceptional devastation of island land-snail faunas and explains why mollusk extinction has historically been underestimated.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2024
Refines the chronology of human colonization of the Canary Islands and discusses subsequent losses of giant rats, lizards, shearwaters and quail.
| Multiple authors | Journal of Archaeological Research | 2023
Reviews Canary Islands archaeology and evidence that human settlement transformed native ecosystems and contributed to endemic vertebrate losses.
| Multiple authors | Journal of Molluscan Studies | 2022
Documents severe late-Quaternary impoverishment of the land-snail fauna of Madeira's Desertas Islands, including numerous apparent extinctions.
| Multiple authors | Biology Letters | 2021
Recovers genetic data from the extinct Tenerife giant rat and reconstructs its evolutionary relationship with African rodents.
| Multiple authors | Current Biology | 2021
Sequences the genome of the extinct Sardinian dhole and finds that prolonged island isolation produced an evolutionarily unique canid lineage.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary | 2019
Revisits the ecology and extinction chronology of Tenerife's giant rat and giant lizard using isotopic and radiocarbon evidence.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2019
Uses ancient mitochondrial DNA to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Myotragus, the remarkable island bovid lost after Balearic settlement.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary International | 2017
Reconstructs Sardinia's late-Pleistocene geography and faunal turnover as endemic mammals disappeared around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
| Juan Carlos Rando et al. | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2014
Reassesses the disappearance of Tenerife's giant rat and finds evidence consistent with rapid extinction around the period of human settlement.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Research | 2014
Uses preserved dung to reconstruct the diet of the extinct Balearic mountain goat Myotragus balearicus, which disappeared soon after human arrival.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Research | 2008
Reconstructs the extinction of the Canary Islands lava mouse and identifies introduced rats and associated ecological changes as likely drivers.
| Maria Rita Palombo et al. | Quaternary International | 2008
Compares mammal origination and extinction across Sardinia, Sicily and other western Mediterranean island systems.
| Hervé Bocherens et al. | Comptes Rendus Palevol | 2006
Uses radiocarbon and stable isotopes to evaluate climate versus human explanations for extinction of Tenerife's giant rat.
| Paul Y. Sondaar | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 1981
Reviews Sardinia's distinctive fossil mammals and notes that the original native mammal fauna was ultimately replaced by human-introduced species.
Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Environments and Humans | 2025
Reviews competing explanations for Madagascar's late-Holocene megafaunal collapse and emphasizes regional combinations of human land use and climate.
| Luis Valente et al. | Nature Communications | 2023
Calculates the immense evolutionary time required to replace Madagascar's mammal diversity already lost since human settlement.
| Alicia Grealy et al. | Nature Communications | 2023
Extracts DNA from fossil eggshell to reveal previously hidden evolutionary lineages among Madagascar's extinct elephant birds.
| Multiple authors | Scientific Reports | 2022
Links pygmy-hippo butchery, fire, pastoralism and increasing human activity with megafaunal disappearance in southwestern Madagascar.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2021
Finds that the spread of pastoralism and introduced livestock coincided closely with the disappearance of Madagascar's endemic megafauna.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2021
Finds that extinction of Madagascar's largest herbivores coincided with major late-Holocene human transformation of the landscape.
| James Hansford et al. | Science Advances | 2018
Reports cut-marked elephant-bird bones that greatly extend the possible period of human-megafauna interaction on Madagascar.
| Multiple authors | PLOS ONE | 2018
Reassesses archaeological evidence for Madagascar's initial colonization and its relationship to the island's later megafaunal extinction.
| James P. Hansford and Samuel T. Turvey | Royal Society Open Science | 2018
Revises elephant-bird diversity and identifies the largest known bird while discussing the extinction of Madagascar's giant avifauna.
| Matthieu Le Corre et al. | Biological Conservation | 2015
Documents rapid seabird and vegetation recovery on Tromelin Island after invasive Norway rats were eradicated.
| Multiple authors | Journal of Human Evolution | 2010
Reconstructs environmental conditions at Ankilitelo Cave to investigate the disappearance of giant lemurs from southwestern Madagascar.
| Multiple authors | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2010
Refines radiocarbon chronology for Madagascar's extinct giant lemurs, elephant birds, pygmy hippos and other megafauna.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2009
Shows how extinction of Madagascar's large native mammals altered ecological resources available to the island's endemic dung beetles.
| David A. Burney et al. | Journal of Human Evolution | 2004
Develops a chronology showing long temporal overlap between people and Madagascar's now-extinct large vertebrates.
| David A. Burney et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2003
Uses Sporormiella fungal spores to reconstruct the collapse of Madagascar's giant lemurs, elephant birds, hippos and tortoises.
Additional Island Extinction Case Studies
| Multiple authors | Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology | 2026
Reviews new Lapita zooarchaeology from Vanuatu and neighboring islands, including evidence for extinct giant reptiles and birds.
| Australian Government | Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water | 2025
Reviews Norfolk Island's history of endemic bird, snail and plant extinctions and the continuing threat posed by introduced predators.
| Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2023
Combines fossil and historical evidence to identify shifting causes behind the near-extinction of New Zealand's kākāpō.
| Multiple authors | Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | 2022
Recovers ancient DNA from the extinct Cypriot pygmy hippopotamus and clarifies the evolutionary history of Mediterranean island hippos.
| Jonathan Q. Richmond et al. | Royal Society Open Science | 2018
Reconstructs Christmas Island's unique reptile radiation after rapid modern losses eliminated most native lizard species from the wild.
| Trevor H. Worthy et al. | PLOS ONE | 2016
Reconstructs the anatomy of New Caledonia's giant flightless Sylviornis, which disappeared shortly after human colonization.
| Alexandra A.E. van der Geer et al. | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2014
Describes an extinct dwarf elephant from Naxos and considers climate, volcanism and human activity as possible causes of island-fauna disappearance.
| Atholl Anderson et al. | Journal of Pacific Archaeology | 2010
Documents at least 20 extinct or locally extinct bird taxa from New Caledonia around the period of first human settlement.
| David W. Steadman | Journal of Zoology | 2006
Describes an extinct giant tooth-billed pigeon from Tonga and shows how prehistoric extinction can create misleading modern patterns of island endemism.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2006
Uses ancient DNA from Mediterranean pygmy elephants to reconsider how repeated island colonization produced extinct dwarf elephant lineages.
| Colin Miskelly et al. | New Zealand Department of Conservation | 2004
Reviews the Chatham Islands avifauna and records roughly 21 bird species lost following Polynesian and European colonization.
| David W. Steadman, Aimée Plourde and David V. Burley | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2002
Examines butchered bird remains from prehistoric Tonga and provides direct evidence of human exploitation of vulnerable island birds.
| Jean-Claude Thibault et al. | Biological Conservation | 2002
Studies the disappearance and decline of Polynesian monarch flycatchers in relation to introduced rats and other biological invasions.
| Richard P. Duncan et al. | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2002
Shows that prehistoric New Zealand birds subjected to heavier human hunting pressure had a greater probability of becoming extinct.
| David W. Steadman | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 1993
Reconstructs Tonga's prehuman bird fauna and shows that human colonization transformed it more dramatically than earlier natural environmental change.
New Zealand, Hawaiʻi and the Southwest Pacific
| Multiple authors | Science of the Total Environment | 2025
Models moa hunting and concludes that preventing extinction would have required implausibly low harvest rates and enormous no-take areas.
| Rob Cooke et al. | Nature Communications | 2023
Estimates that many prehistoric island bird extinctions remain undiscovered because the fossil records of most archipelagos are incomplete.
| Alexander J.F. Verry et al. | Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand | 2022
Reviews three decades of ancient-DNA research on New Zealand's extinct moa, adzebills, eagles, ravens, ducks, owls, wrens and other fauna.
| Richard D. Segal et al. | Pacific Conservation Biology | 2022
Evaluates how native Lord Howe Island birds responded to the archipelago's ambitious island-wide rodent eradication program.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2019
Sequences genomes from the extinct huia and South Island kōkako to test whether genetic decline preceded their extinction.
| Nic Rawlence et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2018
Uses ancient DNA from thousands of bone fragments to reconstruct New Zealand biodiversity before and after human settlement.
| Alexander Boast et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2018
Uses preserved coprolites to reconstruct ecological interactions involving extinct moa and other lost New Zealand birds.
| Lord Howe Island Board | New South Wales Government | 2018
Reviews evidence that introduced rats contributed to the extinction of multiple endemic Lord Howe Island birds, snails and invertebrates.
| Multiple authors | Royal Society Open Science | 2016
Examines early chicken remains from New Zealand archaeological sites containing extinct moa, adzebill and giant-goose remains.
| Richard P. Duncan et al. | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2012
Compares successive waves of New Zealand bird extinction before humans, after Polynesian settlement and after European colonization.
| Michael Bunce et al. | PLOS Biology | 2005
Shows that New Zealand's extinct Haast's eagle evolved rapidly from much smaller ancestors in an island ecosystem dominated by birds.
| Helen F. James et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2002
Uses ancient DNA to reconstruct an extinct radiation of large Hawaiian geese that disappeared following human settlement.
| Multiple authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2002
Models how habitat destruction, introduced disease and climate change threaten surviving Hawaiian birds following extensive historical extinctions.
| Alan Cooper et al. | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 1999
Uses ancient DNA to reveal the evolutionary origins of Hawaii's extinct moa-nalos, giant flightless herbivorous ducks.
| John L. Towns and colleagues | Biological Conservation | 1993
Describes the landmark eradication of Norway rats from Breaksea Island and the subsequent recovery and recolonization of native fauna.
Invasive Predators, Eradication and Island Recovery
| Multiple authors | Ecological Indicators | 2025
Develops indicators for measuring how island restoration and seabird recovery influence surrounding coral-reef ecosystems.
| Multiple authors | Conservation Science and Practice | 2025
Describes an eradication campaign against an exceptionally dense island rat population undertaken to protect endemic species and seabird habitat.
| Multiple authors | Biological Invasions | 2024
Reports the first documented deaths of adult great albatrosses from invasive mouse attacks on Gough and Marion Islands.
| Steffen Oppel et al. | Journal of Applied Ecology | 2022
Shows that mouse predation can produce deceptively slow population declines in the critically endangered Tristan albatross.
| Multiple authors | Current Biology | 2021
Shows that rat eradication allows seabird-derived nutrients to return to terrestrial ecosystems and neighboring coral reefs.
| Carolyn M. Kurle et al. | Scientific Reports | 2021
Documents recovery of Aleutian shorebirds and rocky-intertidal food webs eleven years after rats were removed from Hawadax Island.
| Multiple authors | Current Biology | 2021
Explains how removing invasive rats can restore seabirds and reconnect ecological processes linking islands with coral reefs.
| Anthony Caravaggi et al. | Ibis | 2019
Estimates that mice kill enormous numbers of seabird eggs and chicks annually on Gough Island and place several species at extinction risk.
| Nicholas A.J. Graham et al. | Nature | 2018
Shows that invasive rats suppress seabirds and reduce nutrient subsidies that support productivity on neighboring coral reefs.
| James C. Russell and Nick D. Holmes | Biological Conservation | 2015
Reviews rat eradication as a major conservation tool for preventing further species losses on tropical islands.
| Island Conservation | Island Conservation | 2012
Summarizes the removal of invasive Norway rats from Hawadax, formerly Rat Island, and the return of native breeding birds.
| Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2010
Develops a cost-effectiveness framework for prioritizing black-rat eradication on Italian islands used by threatened shearwaters.
| Richard J. Cuthbert et al. | Biological Conservation | 2009
Models the combined effects of invasive mice and fisheries mortality on Tristan albatrosses and warns of severe long-term extinction risk.
| Ross M. Wanless et al. | Biology Letters | 2007
Demonstrates that invasive house mice on Gough Island can kill seabird chicks hundreds of times larger than themselves and potentially drive extinctions.
| Richard J. Cuthbert and Geoff M. Hilton | Biological Conservation | 2004
Provides early evidence that introduced mice were causing severe mortality among threatened and endemic birds on Gough Island.
