O' mice an' men on remote Antipodes Island: understanding the place of mice in a subantarctic island ecosystem

Geoff Rogers—Science and Capability, DOC, Dunedin and Brian Rance—Conservation Services, DOC, Invercargill. Of all New Zealand's subantarctic islands, the Antipodes has a flora reflecting the tyranny of remoteness and physical uniformity—there are just a few score vascular species and very few woody ones at that. The islands also have highly distinct soils, plant biogeography, vegetation composition, birds, and insects and just one introduced pest—mice. The mice are targeted for eradication, a task that will call upon all New Zealand's globally-esteemed expertise in island pest eradication. This is an account of a team of biologists' challenging, mid winter attempts to understand the island's history and ecology and whether mice disrupt that highly distinct animal and plant life. ^*Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937. The title is taken from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse", which read: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." (The best laid schemes of mice and men / Often go awry.) At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.