A quarter of the world's wandering albatrosses breed on Marion Island in the Indian Ocean. However, large quantities of mice are preying on the birds' eggs and are also attacking full-grown albatrosses.
Images show bloody birds, some with flesh torn from their heads.
The mice simply climb up onto them and start eating the birds away, says nature conservationist Mark Anderson at Birdlife South Africa.
The birds, according to him, do not know how to get rid of the mice.
$29 million has been collected to try to solve the problem. With the help of helicopters, 600 tons of pellets, prepared with rodenticide, will be spread on the island. Every single mouse must go, according to the nature conservationists.
Of the 29 seabird species that breed on the islands, 19 are locally threatened with extinction. The mice have multiplied rapidly due to climate change and, when other food has run out, have turned to the birds.
Previous attempts with cats on the island have failed.
