Removing cats to protect birds backfires on island

[2dogmom]

Why does this not surprise me - people do not seem to understand that meddling with ecosystems is not trivial by any means.

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Remove all the feral cats from a famous Australian island to save the native seabirds.

But the decision to eradicate the felines from Macquarie island allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn, destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover, researchers said Tuesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090113/...it_infestation

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...RitWwD95MBUO80