Rathlin: Woody the dog to become a rat catcher on NI island

With an estimated 10,000 rats on Rathlin, the work required to begin eradicating them has been colossal.

About 7,000 bait stations have been laid, every 50 metres, including along the island’s many steep cliff faces.

The bait has now been placed inside the traps.

It is believed the rats will take it back to their burrows, where they will ingest it and die.

Michael Rafferty is the Operations Manager for the LIFE Raft project.

“This is ten-fold to what we had with the ferrets.

“The ferret eradication is a global first, rat eradications have happened – there have been almost 500 recorded cases of rat eradications,” he said.

“So it’s definitely achievable. That doesn’t say it’s not an almighty task. It’s a major handling that we’re taking on.”

Kevin Rutherford is assisting the rat trap team to tackle the cliffs.

“The weather has been a challenge and we had a cow that was nibbling our ropes which wasn’t ideal,” he said.

“It’s a pretty huge undertaking and these bait stations will be checked every week.

“We have decades of climbing experience between us but this is a big project. It’s keeping us thinking and coming up with solutions.”