Hordes of mice are devouring the eggs of some of the world’s most important seabirds that nest on Marion Island, about 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) southeast of Cape Town, and have started eating live birds, leading conservationist Mark Anderson said.

This includes the iconic Wandering Albatross, with a quarter of the world’s population nesting on the Indian Ocean island.

“The mice have now, for the first time last year, been found to be feeding on adult Wandering Albatrosses,” Anderson told a meeting of BirdLife South Africa, the country’s leading bird conservation organisation.