- Scientists have been studying the atoll’s plants, seabirds, insects, lizards, crabs, coral and algae, establishing a uniquely comprehensive ecological baseline to better understand how the rat eradication will affect the atoll — and others like it.The black-and-white motion-triggered video looks like an outtake from a cheap horror movie: A handful of rats circle a smooth, platter-sized mound of sand.Dozens more boobies and frigatebirds (genus Fregata) circle in the cerulean blue sky and occupy nearby trees and bushes in the seabird colony we’ve waded and hiked to on Hiraanae motu.When people talk about invasive species they’re talking about the spread of nonnative plants, insects and animals, such as cane toads and rabbits in Australia, boll weevils, zebra mussels and kudzu vine in the U.S. and lionfish in the Caribbean.Des Monstiers works for Island Conservation, a Santa Cruz, California-based nonprofit that seeks to prevent extinctions of highly endangered island species."