Two rat-catchers were scrambled on to the isolated Scottish isle with orders to trap every last rat that had managed to sneak ashore from the sinking fishing boat.
But yesterday as the pair were bedding down for their eighth night on the Atlantic outcrop, it became clear that the only creatures trapped on the island were the catchers themselves. During the course of a long, wet week of laying bait and traps, not a single rodent had been spotted, let along trapped.
The fears were raised a week ago when the Spinning Dale foundered on rocks at St Kilda, a remote archipelago 100 miles (160km) from the mainland. Conservationists feared that rats could swim ashore and devastate the huge population of ground-nesting birds on the double World Heritage Site.
Rat-catchers were flown out by helicopter to make rat cakes, a mix of candlewax and chocolate, to see if they could catch any rats. None was found but the catchers themselves ended up embarrassingly trapped.
No birds may have been harmed, and no rats recovered, but human casualties have mounted during the exercise. A BBC news team aborted a boat trip to St Kilda after a cameraman broke his ankle and another fell sick from the crossing. Brian Ashman was taken to hospital after he fell on the way to Hirta, the biggest of the islands. His unnamed fellow cameraman was taken back to Harris to recover from his seasickness.
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