It was decided that to stop and ultimately reverse the dramatic decline in seabird numbers on the Canna SPA it would be necessary to eradicate all the rats from the island. Funding was provided from the EU Life Nature Fund, with matching amounts from Scottish Natural Heritage and the National Trust for Scotland, owners of Canna.

Funding was approved in August 2005. This allowed the trust to put out a tender for the work. The contract was awarded to Wildlife Management International Ltd from New Zealand.

WMIL have much international experience in a wide range of eradication campaigns, most recently on Lundy in the Bristol Channel, where they successfully eradicated a population of rats. In mid August 2005 the WMIL team under the leadership of Biz Bell arrived in Scotland to start planning the project. At the same time Bob Swann was appointed by the National Trust for Scotland as project administrator.

In late August and early September supplies were ordered and delivered to the island. The WMIL team of eight was assembled and advertisements on the Countryside Job Service web site attracted the attention of potential volunteers.

Plan implementation stages:

Stage 1. Establishing the bait station Grid. With the arrival of everyone on the island stage 1, laying out the grid,  could commence.. more.... 

Stage 2. Removing the mice. As the grid was being established some of the team moved on to stage 2, capturing the island's unique race of woodmouse.... more...

Stage 3. The poisoning stage. Once the mice had been removed stage 3, the poisoning stage,  could begin... more...

Stage 3 (cont). Each bait station on the grid is numbered and is visited, weather permitting, every third day... more....

Stage 4. The monitoring stage. From mid-December stage 4 the monitoring stage commenced...   more...

Stage 4 cont. Quarantine and Contingency measures