On Terschelling they hope to solve the rat plague ‘perhaps against their better judgement’ with the help of hunters

With a shooting stick in his left hand and a rifle in his right, Albert Hofstra walks with long strides through the wet grass near an industrial estate on West Terschelling. With every step his boots sink a little into the ground. Suddenly he stops. Hofstra plants the shooting stick (a tripod for the rifle) in the ground, peers intently through a thermal binoculars and then whispers: “Yes, there is one there.”

It is impossible to see with the naked eye what Hofstra is looking at. The only light is the glow of the Brandaris, the lighthouse, which illuminates the path a fraction at a time. But Hofstra has enough of the thermal images. He adjusts the gun a few times and then shoots through the bars of a fence. “Touch. That was a big rat, you can hear that from the thud.”

Hofstra has a mission this December evening: combating rats. For decades, Terschelling was the only municipality in the Netherlands to enjoy a rat-free existence, but that changed this summer – although the hunter suspects that the rodents have been on the island for some time. Terschelling is now struggling with a plague. In an attempt to make the island rat-free again – or at least to control the population – the municipality has called in Hofstra.

It started a few months ago with the discovery of two dead rats, says councilor Bert Wassink in his office in the town hall. “We immediately asked the islanders to report if they saw anything. An ecologist responded to the reports and also did his own research with cameras and traps.” Although some residents appeared to have mistaken a hedgehog or vole for a rat, the ecologist concluded that it could no longer be denied: the rat reached the island, probably via ferry or (livestock) transport.

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At the beginning of November, the city council discussed the issue. 30,000 euros were made available to combat the rat, with another 50,000 euros planned for next year. “Normally they keep a close eye on the money, but I didn’t even have to ask for this,” says Wassink.

It was not immediately clear what this control should look like, the councilor said. “The rat is new, of course we have no expertise in this area.” A colleague from the municipality of Ameland was involved, where rodents were a plague three years ago. Ultimately, Hofstra and Jos Kruis – his colleague from whom Hofstra learned the trade three years ago – came into the picture.

Due to the absence of ground predators – foxes and martens do not occur on the island – the rat has no natural enemies

The intention is for the duo to significantly reduce the rat colony in the short term. They do this with a silenced compressed air rifle, loaded with lead-free pellets of 5.5 millimeters. To kill the rats ‘humanely’, the hunters shoot the animal between the eyes or in the heart-lung area, so that the rat suffers as little as possible. They can shoot accurately up to thirty meters. During an initial visit, Hofstra shot 50 rats at two locations. After a second session the counter stood at 96. With this, the hunters think they have exterminated most of the population.

The municipality also has a plan for the long term. Kruis will train six islanders to become rat hunters, so that they can quickly intervene in the future when reports are reported. “I hope, perhaps against my better judgement, that we will get the rat off the island again,” says Wassink.

Ground brothers

Last summer, ranger Wanda Bakker was one of the first to discover a rat on the island. During a night surveillance with a colleague, she spotted one near holiday homes in West aan Zee. “That’s not possible, we thought,” says Bakker. But given its size and bald tail, it had no other choice.

The presence of the rodent is annoying for the islanders, who fear nuisance at holiday homes and on farms, where the animals can cause damage to electricity and crops. Rats can also transmit the contagious Weil’s disease to humans, causing symptoms such as high fever.

But the islanders are most concerned about nature. Due to the isolated location of Terschelling, which largely consists of a Natura 2000 area, the island has a unique ecosystem. Ground predators – foxes and martens – do not occur on the island. The rat therefore has no natural enemies and can plunder everything.

The rat therefore mainly poses a danger to the birds, says Bakker as she walks along the sandy path along the Waterplak. The heather of the dune valley just beyond West aan Zee has taken on autumn colours, into which Bakker, wearing her army green suit from Staatsbosbeheer, occasionally seems to disappear. “Do you see those dark spots in the trees up ahead?” she asks, passing her binoculars around. “Those are the nests of cormorants. They are not here now, otherwise you would smell them, but in the spring they come to breed here in large numbers.”

The cormorants also breed on the seabed, just like the large spoonbill colony that visits Terschelling every year. Due to the initial absence of ground predators, the birds consider it safe to lay their eggs on the ground. But rats can easily steal them. “And if those eggs are eaten, the birds may not return,” says Bakker.

Oystercatchers

It doesn’t seem that far yet. So far, the rat has mainly been seen on the west side of the island, near the aforementioned industrial estate, not in the nature reserves of Staatsbosbeheer. “The rat is focused on humans, and the animal finds food and garbage in his vicinity,” says Bakker.

However, the rodents have already found their way to the polder, where meadow birds such as avocets, curlews and oystercatchers breed on the ground. Bakker: “We want to protect the birds, so that they come back to breed and then can fly out safely again.”

The breeding season, which starts in mid-March, must show whether the birds can still safely build their nests on the ground. The forest rangers keep an eye on this with nest counts. And in the meantime, they continue to learn about the rat, with the help of experienced fellow forest rangers from Vlieland. “For example, they can see from the damage to eggs whether they have been predated by a rat,” says Bakker.

Through learning, the forest rangers also have to discover whether the rat is causing further disruption. “Does a rat also eat small rabbits, for example?” Bakker asks. “That would disrupt the ecosystem, because rabbits are important dune managers. Their droppings work like fertilizer for dune violets, wheatears use rabbit holes to breed, and with their grazing they prevent the dunes from closing up,” says Bakker.

We want to protect the birds so that they come back to breed and then fly out safely

Other animals are also used for the latter, says Bakker, as she points to a group of horses on a dune, behind which the North Sea roars. “These are horses owned by private individuals, but we also have our own goats, Exmoor ponies and galloways (large cattle) grazing in Staatsbosbeheer areas. This way the dune remains open and special species are preserved.”

Bucks

After two laps around and over the industrial estate, Hofstra drives to a farm. The howling can already be heard outside. Two weeks earlier, the hunter had shot 27 rats in one evening in the hayloft, but this evening the rodents are only seen sparingly.

Hofstra searches the attic and the cowshed below with the thermal binoculars. After half an hour he discovers something in the corner. It turns out to be a bird. “We won’t do that,” says Hofstra. Shortly afterwards he turns the gun downwards, where he sees a rat walking in the stable. Hit. One of the cows gets up, walks to the dead animal and remains motionless for several minutes, looking at the corpse.

At the end of the evening, Hofstra and Kruis, who was doing a round outside, collect the loot. They use a grabbing stick to neatly line up the dead animals. “They are little ones,” says Hofstra as he straightens the rats. “Yesterday we had a big rat, which was at least three years old.”

They count the rats, check their magazines for bullets and then rinse their boots. Sixteen dead rats in total. A successful evening, but the lowest number so far. Typically, they need about three sessions in one place to significantly reduce the population, Hofstra says. “You never find them all, but after three visits we have usually shot away about 90 percent of the rats. That saves a lot of inconvenience.”

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