Eradicating rats from a building can often be difficult. But how about eliminating them from an entire island? Well that’s what conservation officials have been working on for years in Alaska’s remote Hawadax Island. As reported in the Anchorage Daily News, Hawadax has been overrun by Norwegian rats, a ravenous species that devours many of the food sources used by shorebirds, song sparrows and puffins. Fortunately by using poisonous bait pellets, conservation officials have been able to rid the island of the varmints, and now birds are singing once again. This remarkable transformation of so-called rat island into a bird paradise is now serving as a role model for island ecosystem conservation around the globe.