Save The 'Galapagos' With GMO Rats - What Could Go Wrong?

By SARAH WILLIAMS | INNLIVE

The Galapagos Islands are famous for exotic birds, tortoises, and iguanas, but recently the archipelago had become overrun with more prosaic animals: rats and mice. Rodents that came on old sailing ships. Rodents that stowed away on modern cruises. Wherever they came from, rodents that eat the eggs and chicks and hatchlings of the animals that so dazzled Charles Darwin.

The same story plays out on islands all over the world. So Island Conservation, a nonprofit that rids islands of invasive species, has come up with a daring plan: genetically engineer the rodents so that they all turn into males, shrinking the population one lonely pest at a time.