Goodbye Rats, Hello… Hawadax?
Hawadax Island. It doesn’t conjure up images of umbrella drinks, and moonlit strolls on the sand. It sounds more like one of those islands where they sent large groups of people with contagious and incurable diseases, but it’s actually quite lovely. “Hawadax” means “those two over there” in the Alaskan Unungan language, (referring to two knolls that dominate the island’s topography) which isn’t really that thrilling either – until you get the whole story. Because however unappealing Hawadax “Those Two Over There” Island may sound, it could have been a lot worse. In fact, it was a lot worse until…
Odds and Ends
Getting Those Damn Rats Out of Alaska No, not those kind of rats. And not really the whole state…but still, it’s a victory. I’m talking about actual four-legged, snaggle-toothed, beady-eyed, bird-killin’ varmints. The ignominiously named “Rat Island” appears to now be completely rat free. I’ve been following this story for a while, so I was glad to hear that the latest news was good. The down side to the rat eradication is that the poisoned pellets used to kill them also killed gulls and bald eagles in the process. Since Rat Island has been infested with rats for 230 years,…