Mice accidently introduced to the Gough Island of South Atlantic by passing ships in the 19th century now poses a big threats to a lot of rare seabirds there.Link to Telegragh and NGOn Gough Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha islands, about 1,000 endangered Tristan Albatross chicks - about 70 per cent of all those born - are being taken by the mice. The island, a British territory 1,700 miles off the coast of South Africa, is the breeding ground for almost the entire world population of these rare birds.
"The scale is sufficient to drive extinctions," said Ross Wanless, an ornithologist at the University of Cape Town, who has been researching the killer mice. "We had no idea that mice could do this sort of thing."
Mr Wanless has captured the first film footage of the mice - which are the only foreign mammals on Gough Island - attacking the defenceless chicks in their nests.
Swarms of 10 mice at a time can be seen gnawing at the chicks' bodies until they eventually die through blood loss or destruction of vital organs. Chick carcasses found later are reduced to little more than skin and bones.
An albatross chick weighs more than 20lb, about the size of a goose, while a mouse weighs just two ounces
However, the researchers say the chicks make no attempt to fight back and seem not to know how to respond, perhaps because the mice are not native to the islands, and so the birds have not evolved ways of protecting themselves.