NICK MOONEY speaks on ABC Radio Hobart for Rodenticides Awareness Week! Nick explains that the impact of widespread use of rat poisons on our wildlife is much bigger than we thought.

Image: Raptor Refuge (above), Nick Mooney, Keynote speaker for Rodenticide Awareness Week (right) 

"We just published a paper analysing a whole lot of dead eagles. We found about 3/4s of the Wedge Tailed Eagles had very high levels of anti-coagulant rodenticides in them" says Nick.

"Anti-coagulants thin the blood to an extreme and the animals bleed to death internally"

“One of the main problems is the rats and mice don’t feel sick for some time so they behave normally, but importantly, they can eat far more than a lethal dose for themselves."

"So an owl or an eagle, or a quoll even, that eats one of those rats or mice gets a LOT of poison"

"Birds living around people, particularly in agricultural areas, get very high levels of rodenticides"

Listen to the full interview where Mel and Nick talk about the IMPACTS on raptors, the TYPES of poisons which are harmful, and the VALUE of birds of prey in our ecosystems.  

Read our comprehensive guide on the issue here. 

or COME ALONG to one of our Q&A sessions.