China Battles Rat Plague With Foxes, Eagles
Date: 07-Sep-07
Country: CHINA
For much of this year, grazing land in parts of Xinjiang
province have been overwhelmed by growing numbers of rats and
other rodents gobbling up grass and forcing out sheep, Xinhua
news agency reported.
Now officials there think they have found a green answer --
eagles attracted by nesting stands and foxes unleashed on the
armies of rats.
"Using these natural predators to kill the rodents is not
only inexpensive, it can sustainably control rodent plagues and
there's not environmental pollution," the report said.
Up to now, rat control around the grasslands has depended
on scattering poison, and around hard-hit areas this year
authorities used airplanes to do the job.
"The results have not been ideal," the report said,
Now across northern Xinjiang over a thousand eagle nests
and stands have been erected, and authorities released 200
foxes bred in captivity to chomp through the rats, Xinhua said.
In one county, the number of rodent holes has dropped by 70
percent since the foxes were unleashed, it said.
Around half of restive Xinjiang's population are Uighur, an
overwhelmingly Muslim Turkic ethnic group, or belong to other
non-Han groups that traditionally lived off herding and
trading.