Before human beings appeared on the scene, many of Mexico’s Pacific islands were home to vast colonies of birds … accompanied by rats, cats and goats, just to name a few of the invasive species that soon wiped out the seabirds.
Twenty-four years ago, a group of concerned Mexican biologists decided to do something about it. They formed a nonprofit organization called Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI), or the Ecology and Island Conservation Group, and began the long, slow task of restoring 39 islands, one by one, to a semblance of what they had been before invasive species turned their ecosystems upside down.
In an interview, Federico Méndez, GECI’s executive director, told me that their focus has been concentrated on Northwestern Mexico.
“Here we find the biggest concentration of islands and the greatest number of species in trouble, along with the greatest number of invasive species, the most problematic of which are mammals like feral cats, rats, mice, sheep, goats, wild dogs, wild donkeys and rabbits. These have caused extinctions on islands all around the world and Mexico is no exception.”
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