Rats!

So there's this island in the Aleutians dubbed Rat Island. The rats landed aboard a ship in 1780 and stuck around to decimate the habitat. Rat Island is haunting for its lack of birds. Silence falls over the waves. Few, if any, small mammals wander the land as rats

Rats have been the scourge of islands worldwide. According to the California-based group Island Conservation, rats are to blame for between 40 percent and 60 percent of all seabirds and reptile extinctions, with 90 percent of those occurring on islands.

In speaking of the Aleutians, the article I read goes on to say of the islands around the infamous Rat Island:

Rats have all but wiped out the seabirds on about a dozen large islands and many smaller islands in the refuge, which is home to an estimated 40 million nesting seabirds. Puffins, auklets and storm petrels are most at risk because they leave their eggs and young for extended periods while foraging.

Ooooh. Rat Island, you evil little piece of land. Creepy.

So the scientists are gonna wipe out the rats. Read more on it here.