China battles rat plague with foxes, eagles

BEIJING, Sep 7 (Reuters) Authorities in far western China have gone into battle against a plague of rodents by using ''hot-shot'' eagles and foxes, state media reported.

For much of this year, grazing land in parts of Xinjiang province have been overwhelmed by growing numbers of rats and other rodents gobbling up grass and forcing out sheep, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

Now officials there think they have found a green answer -- eagles attracted by nesting stands and foxes unleashed on the armies of rats.

''Using these natural predators to kill the rodents is not only inexpensive, it can sustainably control rodent plagues and there's not environmental pollution,'' the report said.

Up to now, rat control around the grasslands has depended on scattering poison, and around hard-hit areas this year authorities used airplanes to do the job.

''The results have not been ideal,'' the report said, Now across northern Xinjiang over a thousand eagle nests and stands have been erected, and authorities released 200 foxes bred in captivity to chomp through the rats, Xinhua said.

In one county, the number of rodent holes has dropped by 70 percent since the foxes were unleashed, it said.

Around half of restive Xinjiang's population are Uighur, an overwhelmingly Muslim Turkic ethnic group, or belong to other non-Han groups that traditionally lived off herding and trading.

REUTERS ARB HS1003