It is not an normal behavior that mice eating baby birds alive but scientists get the poof when observing a mysterious birds dying on a South Atlantic island. The House mice were introduced to a South Atlantic island are attacking and killing seabird chicks, such as the Tristan albatrosses.
House mice (Mus musculus) were thought to pose little risk to island birds, until now. Now, video footage exposes tiny house mice as they invade the nests of young chicks and proceed to gnaw through chicks' feathers and skin before gorging on their entrails.
The result is more than a tale of mighty mouse gone bad; with so many chicks dying and not making it to adulthood (an age when they can breed), the island's bird populations can take a nosedive.
While islands represent a small fraction of Earth's land area, they are home to a relatively large percentage of bird species. Since 1600, more than 90 percent of avian extinctions have occurred among island species, say the authors of the new study.
