The Zombie Mice of Marion Island

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.5 • 10.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2019

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mice on the sub-Antarctic Marion Island are out for blood, and they're feasting, zombie-style, on living, immature albatrosses. Turns out, these tiny mammals are a very big threat to these huge seabirds. One photographer says it was more intense than watching the first four seasons of The Walking Dead. For more information on this episode visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard Want more? Want to see the zombie mice of Marion Island yourself? You can see photos and video here, but beware, some may find the footage disturbing. Meet National Geographic Photographer Thomas Peschak, and see more of his work. Read more about Peschak's experience documenting these ravenous mice (warning: the photos and video are graphic). Also explore: This other island has been declared rat-free thanks to a conservation effort. Learn more about the global migratory bird crisis. If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ah, the sound of spring cleaning.
0:03.6	Steam clean your way to brighter bathrooms
0:06.6	and sparkling kitchens with the carcass deem cleaner.
0:09.6	You'll be done before you know it,
0:11.6	with more time to pitch your feet up.
0:14.6	Find your carcass deem cleaner
0:16.6	at carcature.co.uk or a carcass retailer.
0:20.0	I've watched every single season of The Walking Dead.
0:24.4	And this is rougher than anyone of those episodes.
0:30.4	It's a horror show, basically.
0:32.0	It's a comedy mouse apocalypse
0:34.6	with mice and albatrosses.
0:36.6	In between assignments in South Africa and South America,
0:40.2	photographer Tom Pechex stopped by the Nat Geo Studio.
0:43.6	And he told us a story that made us stop in our tracks.
0:47.0	Imagine you are on a sub-ing Arctic volcano.
0:51.6	It's an island in the middle of this southern ocean
0:54.8	thousands of miles from anywhere.
0:57.6	One of the most remote islands in the world
1:00.2	and one of the least visited as well.
1:02.2	Tom came to this apparently peaceful island
1:05.0	to search for the many species of seabirds that live there
	...

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