In 2013, the Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project was set up by the Duchy of Cornwall, the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB),
Natural England, the
Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. The five-year project aims to keep the islands of
St Agnes and
Gugh,
brown rat (
Rattus norvegicus) free, to help breed sea birds, which lost 25% of their populations between 1983 and 2006. The rats eat eggs and kill the chicks of those birds that nest in burrows or on the ground. Rat removal began in October 2013, by a team of thirty volunteers led by Wildlife Management International Limited (WMIL) of
New Zealand, and there have been no signs of rats on St Agnes and Gugh since December 2013. WMIL returned to the islands to do a final check for rats in 2016. In 2014,
Manx shearwater (
Puffinus puffinus) bred on both Gugh and St Agnes for the first time in living memory, and a survey of St Agnes in July 2015 found
European storm petrel (
Hydrobates pelagicus) at six nests. A follow-up in early September, to confirm breeding, found storm petrel chicks at each of the sites. Storm petrel also bred on Gugh in 2015. ==See also==