Photograph courtesy Ross Wanless Published May 21, 2012 On a
remote island in the South Atlantic, common house mice have
become unrelenting killers, consuming millions of endangered
baby birds a year, a new study confirms. The massacre is taking
place on Gough Island (map), a British territory almost smack-
dab in between the tips of South America and South Africa. The
only humans living on the island belong to a small team running
a weather station. Gough Island has long been recognized as an
important seabird colony, since it hosts roughly ten million
birds of more than 20 species. The island is also thought to be
the only breeding ground for the Atlantic petrel—2 million
breeding pairs produce 1.6 million chicks a year. The new study,
though, reveals that the petrel chicks are in constant danger
from house mice, which have grown to supersize proportions since
being introduced to the island 150 years ago. (Related: "Viking
Invaders Brought Armies of Mice.") "The sheer densities of the
numbers of birds there—