Conservation workers are systematically poisoning all the black rats on the two-hectare island so that in a year’s time they will be able to release the endangered lizards.
The Durrell Wildlife Trust undertook a similar project in nearby Praslin Island in 1995, and that island is now one of only three known habitats for whiptail lizards.
There are only around 3,000 of the lizards – locally known as Zando Lizards – left in the wild.
Durrell Wildlife Trust conservation director Dr John Fa said it was important to restore habitats – and pointed out the rats were not indigenous, but were probably brought to the island by Spanish explorers.
But he added there was no evidence that whiptail lizards were indigenous to the island either.
