Restoring the Balance

2007 FESTIVAL
28 min.
Monty Python alum John Cleese investigates an ongoing battle against invasive rats on Anacapa Island, a jewel in the Channel Island National Park, just 12 miles off the coast of Southern California. The rats are eating the eggs and chicks of nesting seabirds. Because rats are responsible for an estimated 60 percent of the world’s extinctions, the problem becomes clear: remove the rats or face continuing pressure on the island’s species.