The ambitious Million Dollar Mouse pest eradication project on remote Antipodes Island in the sub-antarctic was completed ahead of schedule in July. 

A second helicopter drop of rodent bait across the island was finished in July, following a first phase completed on June 29.

“Despite very unsettled weather conditions, the Million Dollar Mouse team have done an outstanding job of making use of every available weather window to get the bait drop completed,” Ms Barry, Minister of Conservation said.

“This is the most challenging pest eradication ever carried out in New Zealand and is a globally significant conservation achievement, safeguarding a unique, remote and forbidding land and the many extraordinary species living there.”

Mice are the only introduced predator on the island, which is home to endemic species such as the Reischek’s and Antipodes Island parakeets, snipe and pipit, thousands of seabirds and marine mammals.

“The second bait drop by mid-July is a major step on the way to returning Antipodes to the way it was before the arrival of humans, pests and weeds.

Million Dollar Mouse was jointly funded by DOC, the Morgan Foundation, Island Conservation, WWF-New Zealand and public donations.

Total eradication of mice cannot be confirmed until a monitoring team visit the island in 2018.

To find out more, visit the Million Dollar Mouse website