Humans often should not take the natural course of things into their own hands as it can invite disaster. The Macquarie Island is located about half way between Australia and Antarctica in the Tasmanian Sea. It was named a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and then a World Heritage site in 1997 to protect its diverse ecology. The isle is home to nearly 3.5 million seabirds and 80,000 elephant seals that migrate there each year. Invader species from various passing ships (such as cats, mice, rabbits and rats) have claimed territory over the last 100 years.

In 1995, the Parks and Wildlife Service of Tasmania decided they should remove the invaders and started with the cats because they could threaten the birds.

While the project did remove most of the cats, officials soon discovered that the rabbit population in particular has exploded causing widespread devastation between 2000 and 2007.

The new plan is to make a massive attempt to use poison, traps, fumigants and guns to remove the rest of the invaders. Officials claim that they did expect the situation that they now find themselves in but if that were the case, one would think they would have had a plan in place before the conditions deteriorated to what they now experience. The next round of eradication is expected to start in 2010.

To me, it is called natural selection because the humans are not involved to mess it up. While one could argue that humans caused the problem by traveling to the island, I would argue it is natural for us to be curious and travel. It is also natural for the animals to travel with us. It was not a case of us trying to introduce the animals into an environment, rather it was a natural occurrence and the animals found ways to adapt. That is until we stepped into it.