. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. Introduced Rats, Rattus spp., on the Queen Charlotte Islands: Implications for Seabird Conservation Douglas F. Bertram' and David W. Nagorsen2 'Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, 620 University Road, Friday Harbor. Washington 98250 -Vertebrate Unit, Royal British Columbia Museum, 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8V 1X4 Bertram, Douglas F., and David W. Nagorsen. 1995. Introduced rats, Rattus spp., on the Queen Charlotte Islands: Implications for seabird conservation. Canadian Field-Naturalist 109(1): 6-10. S
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. Introduced Rats, Rattus spp., on the Queen Charlotte Islands: Implications for Seabird Conservation Douglas F. Bertram' and David W. Nagorsen2 'Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, 620 University Road, Friday Harbor. Washington 98250 -Vertebrate Unit, Royal British Columbia Museum, 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8V 1X4 Bertram, Douglas F., and David W. Nagorsen. 1995. Introduced rats, Rattus spp., on the Queen Charlotte Islands: Implications for seabird conservation. Canadian Field-Naturalist 109(1): 6-10. Since the 1950s, some large seabird colonies on the Queen Charlotte Islands archipelago in British Columbia have under- gone major declines. Predation from introduced rats has contributed to declines in burrow-nesting seabirds, especially the Ancient Murrelet {Synthliboramphus antiquus). A review of historical museum records, published observations, and recent field surveys revealed that rats have been recorded on 18 islands; seven of these islands presently support colonies of bur- rowing seabirds. Our review suggests that the Norway Rat (Rattus non'egicus) has recently displaced the Black Rat {Rattus rattus) on Langara Island and possibly Kunghit Island. Implications for seabird conservation and rat control programs are discussed. Key Words: Norway Rat, Rattus non'egicus. Black Rat, Rattus rattus, seabird colonies, predation, control programs. The Queen Charlotte Islands (or Haida Gwaii) is an isolated archipelago of about 150 islands situated off the west coast of British Columbia. The archipelago supports large numbers of breeding seabirds. In the past few decades, however, some seabird colonies have exhibited disturbing declines. Langara Island, for example (Figure 1). once sup- ported one of the largest seabird colonies in British Columbia (Drent and Guiguet 1961; Gaston 1992). Six burrow-nesting seabirds nested on the island: Ancient Murrelet {Synthliboramphus antiquus),
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