Island Conservation
Research explores just how strong a Coconut Crabs pinch can be, but there is so much more to understand about these vibrant animals. The Coconut Crab is a unique and beautiful creature found on islands throughout the Indo-Pacific. This vibrant species is the largest hermit crab in the world–measuring up to 18 inches long and […]
Five years after the removal of invasive rats, conservationists return to Palmyra Atoll. Almost three weeks have passed since our team of five conservationists arrived on Palmyra Atoll. This tropical atoll, one of the Line Islands 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, was once overrun with invasive rats. Thankfully for us and the rest of the walking, […]
Dateline correspondent Harry Smith takes us to a Pacific island so protected and pristine that TV news cameras have never been there and so fragile that he and his team had to rid their clothes of invasive microbes by sealing and freezing them before setting foot on its shores… Palmyra Atoll provides essential nesting habitat for […]
Palmyra Atoll—comprised of approximately 618 acres of emergent lands—is located about 1,000 miles southwest of Hawai‘i in the Central Pacific Ocean and is part of the Line Islands archipelago. Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, established in 2001, includes approximately 446 acres of emergent land and 503,963 acres of submerged lands, reefs, and waters out to […]
Palmyra Atoll has been free of invasive rats for more than three years and native plants and animals are steadily recovering! A team of four researchers recently returned from a 2014 trip to conduct scientific monitoring to determine the impacts of removing non-native rats. Since the last scientific monitoring trip in 2012, both scientific and […]
Palmyra Atoll is rat-free one year after a major effort to remove these invasive predators, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, and Island Conservation announced today. January 28, 2013 Contact: Emily Heber, Island Conservation, emily.heber@islandconservation.org Evelyn Wight, The Nature Conservancy, 808-587-6277 Joan Jewett, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 503-231-6211 […]