Wee sleekit cowrin tim'rous beasties go on holiday to the mainland

While biodiversity is important, this evacuation (in The Times) seems rather a lot of trouble in order to save 120 woodmice:

"A COLONY of rare woodmice, unique to the Scottish island of Canna, is going to be evacuated before a £250,000 project to exterminate the entire population of brown rats.
About 120 woodmice will be captured in their burrows next month by experts from Edinburgh Zoo and transported in cages to the mainland until conditions are right for a return.
The Canna woodmice are a unique genetic strain and are larger than usual, having developed in isolation on the most westerly of the four Small Isles. The mice will be divided into two sustainable breeding colonies, one at the zoo and the other at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie.
Their rescue will take place before the cull, due to start this autumn, and is designed to protect nesting seabirds from the rats’ voracious appetite for eggs. The five-mile-long, whale-shaped island, owned by the National Trust for Scotland, has been a bird sanctuary since 1938 with 157 recorded species including white-tailed eagles and corncrakes. Whales and porpoises can be seen from its shores."

It's a bit tough if you are a brown rat rather than a woodmouse...