I am honored to serve as the first patron of the Mouse-Free Marion Project, a partnership between the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment and BirdLife South Africa. The Mouse-Free Marion Project, without a doubt, is the single most important research and eradication project in the world today. 

South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island is the larger of the two Prince Edward Islands, which together provide globally important breeding sites for seabirds and other wildlife. This island group is home to almost half of the world’s Wandering Albatrosses along with millions of other seabirds. The accidental introduction of mice in the early 19th century devastated populations of the native invertebrates, and mice have more recently resorted to preying on seabirds. The mice are literally eating the chicks alive and even the adults of both surface-nesting and burrowing seabirds. Without intervention, 19 of the 29 bird species on Marion Island could become locally extinct if invasive mice are not eradicated.

In an ambitious undertaking, the Mouse-Free Marion Project aims to remove the introduced mice from Marion Island. Helicopters will spread rodenticide bait across the entire island—the only method that has so far proven successful in eradicating rodents from large islands.

As the project’s first Patron, I offer my full support to the Mouse-Free Marion Project, and I am working quite closely with the Project’s philanthropy team to help secure project funding. The Mouse-free Marion Project team made significant headway in 2024. And this year, the team will continue to intensify its preparatory and planning efforts for the eradication operation. The team’s focus will remain on meticulous project planning, ongoing fundraising efforts, and advancing pre-eradication field work. To date, the team has raised approximately a quarter of the US $32 million cost of the project. It would mean a great deal to me and the rest of the Mouse-Free Marion Project team to have your support for this globally important effort. Can we count on you to help?