Douglas Main,
OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Date: 27 March
2013 Time: 02:06 PM ET
A plan to
eliminate rats on Alcatraz, home to the famous old prison in San Francisco Bay
In early 2012,
National Park Service employees placed a non-toxic dye into food for rats to
eat; the dye makes the animals excrete fluorescent droppings that glow under
black lights, making it easier to track the rodents. A group of workers and
volunteers from the UC Davis' entomology club canvassed the island using black
lights to search for evidence of rats,
which threaten populations of birds on the Rock.
Instead of
glowing rat droppings, however, the researchers found something else that
glowed under their lights — and it was alive. Closer investigation revealed
small,fluorescent
millipedes, said UC Davis entomologist Robert Kimsey, whose student
Alexander Nguyen is studying what makes the creatures glow.
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