Talk will shed light on Calf of Man rat project

There’s a chance this weekend to find out more about a project to eliminate rats from the Calf of Man.

Over the winter Manx National Heritage and a number of other agencies started the Manx Shearwater Recovery Project which is designed to protect nesting seabirds.

The Calf used to be home to thousands of the birds until brown rats landed on the Island after a shipwreck in the late 1700s. They wiped out the huge colony and since then only a few birds have been able to breed.

A talk on the project will take place in the Manx Museum at 10am. Admission is free.

Curator of natural history Kate Hawkins says they’ve come to the end of the first phase:

(AUDIO ABOVE)