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Mouse predation on Laysan albatross

Metadata Updated: September 30, 2025

Invasive rodents on islands have adverse impacts on native birds in island ecosystems, and rats are the most common culprits. Recently, house mice (Mus musculus) in the South Atlantic were found preying on three species of albatross chicks. Here, we show that house mice can also prey on nesting adult Laysan albatross (Phoebastrea immutabilis) on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (USA). In contrast to mouse attacks on albatross in the South Atlantic where mice targeted the rump and crown of chicks, on Midway, mice targeted nesting adults mainly on the back. For both regions, the outcome was similar with reduced nesting success. In the case of Midway, reduced nesting success was due to nest abandonment or mortality of one or both parents due to secondary bacterial infections. Mortality of adult albatross has the potential to have a more potent demographic impact due to their much higher natural survivorship once they reach adulthood. We discuss possible reasons why mice preyed on live albatross. Pursuant to these findings, efforts are currently under way to eradicate mice on Midway Atoll.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5ed9223082ce7e579c673ab0
Data Last Modified 2021-01-07T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 8036789c-c1c2-4e63-8c6d-516527d68f41
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial 177.3735, 28.2072, 177.3735, 28.2072
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b007400d2e837c286cf258b2ee41138c92b98daacd6723d2a2f34d9fd86ebacc
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": 177.3735, 28.2072, 177.3735, 28.2072, 177.3735, 28.2072, 177.3735, 28.2072, 177.3735, 28.2072}

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