A RAT with only one hole soon perishes. Luckily for “Razza”, a single male Norwegian rat released on an island in New Zealand, he found many avenues of escape. Surrounded by traps, tempted by chocolate and even tracked by dogs, he managed to evade capture for an astonishing four months. Eventually swimming 400 metres across open ocean to a neighbouring island, Razza’s freedom finally ended with a misjudged bite on a piece of penguin meat laid in a trap.
The story should serve as a cautionary tale for conservation biologists, says Mick Clout of the University of Auckland, whose student…
