15 January 2020

New year and here is the PonDerat team returning to work. This time we went to Ponza and Palmarola with the usual double commitment: implementation of biosecurity in Ponza and routine checks in Palmarola. Again the results are comforting. The rats seem to be no longer present in Palmarola. We hope to be able to declare officially shortly the island "rat-free". The biosecurity activities in Ponza are constantly being improved and strengthened. From the genetic analysis carried out on rats at the beginning of the project, it has been seen that in the past years there has been a continuous passage of individuals from one island to another. It is critical to prevent this from happening. Therefore the biosecurity action is crucial in order not to frustrate all the efforts of these years.