http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7634896/Island-which-spent-600000-getting-rid-of-rats-over-run-with-rabbits.htmlThe last rat was seen on the tiny island of Canna four years ago after specialist pest controllers were brought in from more than 11,000 miles away to deal with the problem.
But now islanders are complaining that the rodent's disappearance has led to thousands of rabbits invading the island because there are no rats to keep their numbers down.
The problem is so bad that locals say historic monuments are being "devastated" by the rabbits and they are devouring the self-sufficient islanders' gardens away.
Even the island's only restaurant has responded to the bounty and put on dishes of rabbit and cranberry with pistachio and rabbit pie in a rosemary and thyme cream sauce.
The war against the rats began in 2005 when a team from New Zealand laid deadly bait at 4,200 locations around the five-mile long island, which has little more than 20 residents.
So rapid and successful was the slaughter that the body of the last of around 10,000 brown rats was found and removed in February 2006.
Two years then had to pass without any further sightings before the then Environment Minister Michael Russell declared Canna to be free of rats.
The brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, had threatened to extinguish the island's precious sea bird colonies and kill off one of its smallest and rarest inhabitants - the Canna mouse, distinctive from its mainland counterpart as it is almost 25 per cent bigger.
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