How A Handful Of Mice Take Over An Island
The University of Illinois graduate student and his colleagues intentionally released mice onto New Zealand’s Saddle Island so they could study, in intricate detail, how invasions take place. To see how mice might overcome the Allee effect, MacKay’s team released the radio-collared mice onto Saddle Island, one pair at a time, over the course of a year. By comparing the introduced rodents’ behaviors to those of the island’s pre-eradication population, as well as those in the mainland population, the researchers were looking to discern whether mouse behavior is flexible enough to overcome the Allee effect.
Source: www.hakaimagazine.com