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Survival of Rats at Eniwetok Atolli WILLIAM B

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Survival of Rats at Eniwetok Atolli WILLIAM B Survival of Rats at Eniwetok AtollI WILLIAM B. JACKSON2 THE STORY of rats at Eniwetok Atoll (Marshall While proof is lacking, I believe that the only Islands) and their apparently uncanny ability to rodent at Eniwetok Atoll prior to the initiation survive atomic detonations and inhabit areas of the AEC program in 1946 was the Polynesian with high levels of radiation has been referred rat (Rattus exulans). This is the common rat of to in various documents (Berrill, 1966; Hines, the Pacific islands, having moved with the 1962 and 1966; French, 1965; Woodbury, Micronesians from island to island. Probably 1962); all are to some degree incomplete or in only the larger islets of the atoll (those with error. The purpose of this paper is to pull to­ coconut plantings) were infested. gether the fragments of data that are available Although the Germans, and later the Japa­ and, at this late date, attempt to piece together nese, were active in the Marshall Islands in the the story of the survival of rat populations at first half of the twentieth century, no specific Eniwetok. records of rodents for Eniwetok Atoll seem to exist. St. John (1960) indicated that no botan­ HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ical accounts existed from German (or the Eniwetok and Bikini atolls in the northern earlier Spanish) explorations. While botanical Marshall Islands were involved in the United collections were made by the Japanese, I can States nuclear testing program between 1946 find no descriptions of rats, and no rodent and 1958. During this period six major opera­ specimens from Eniwetok Atoll were present whe~ exa~ined tions were carried out at Eniwetok Atoll and I the collection in the Japanese involved some 40 detonations. Many devices Natwnal SCience Museum in Tokyo. No speci­ were small and made little impact on the en­ mens or recorded observations of rats from Eni­ vironment; others, through shock, heat, and wetok Atoll are known to exist prior to 1945. radiation waves, destroyed biotic communities Prior to the first test, a biological survey was within several miles of the test sites. The "Mike" made, and J. P. E. Morrison (D. S. National explosion, rated at 10.4 megatons and by far the Museum, personal communication) has indi­ cated that, in 1946 when he visited Eniwetok largest shot undertaken at Eniwetok, obliterated isle~ two islets, carved a crater in the coral reef a he saw only Polynesian rats-on one mile in diameter, and left scorched and singed (Igurin) on which he camped overnight. His plants and animals 14 miles away. observations at Bikini Atoll the same year were As with many operations, code names were much more extensive. Though he observed rats given to each series and shot. The initial test on a number of islets there, he indicated that all program at Eniwetok in 1948 was labeled Sand­ were Polynesian rats. I have examined five spe­ stone; the Greenhouse series followed in 1951. cimens in the National Museum, each collected In 1952 the Mike shot, involving a thermo­ on a different islet, and I concur in the identifi­ nuclear device, was part of the Ivy series. In cation. 1954 the Nectar shot was the principal detona­ A similar, mono-specific rodent infestation tion of the Castle series. The Redwing series in can be cited for other relatively isolated areas in 1956 and the Hardtack series in 1958, both Micronesia prior to World War II or the post­ involving a number of small shots, were the last war period. Thus it seems reasonable to con­ in the test program (Hines, 1962). clude that only Polynesian rats were present at Eniwetok prior to 1946. 1 Adapted from presentation at Second National That an alternative hypothesis can be devel­ Symposium on Radioecology, Ann Arbor, 1967. oped must be admitted. The Japanese had exten­ 2 Department of Biology, Bowling Green State Uni­ versity, Bowling Green, Ohio 43402. Manuscript sive fortifications at Eniwetok Atoll, largely on received September 17, 1968. Engebi, Eniwetok, and Parry islets (Fig. 1). In 265 266 PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXIII, July 1969 I ENIWETOK ATOLL N CHINI[ERO JAPTAN SOUTHWEST • EAST CHANNEL PASSAGE NAUTICAL MILES 1012345178 SOUTH CHANNEL FIG. 1. Map of Eniwetok Atoll. Island names are taken from U. S. Naval Oceanographic Chart 6033 (revised January 1966). 1944 more than 3,500 troops and laborers were a result, the islet was largely denuded, though present on Engebi because of its air strip; Micro­ a palm grove covering nearly one-sixth of the nesians were restricted to the Biijiri, Aomen, islet remained near its center, and some palms Rojoa complex (Hines, 1962:84). Elsewhere in and/or second growth vegetation along the the Pacific, Japanese occupation on occasion lagoon shore and the northwest tip of the islet brought with it the roof rat (Rattus rattus) appear in war-period photographs. Although (Johnson, 1962); this possibility cannot be ex' some palms remained standing after the inva­ eluded here. However, the roof rat populations sion, much of the vegetation was badly shattered now present at Eniwetok Atoll, and the Mar­ (Bryan, 1944). Aerial photographs taken two shalls as a unit, are morphologically similar to months after the invasion show no trees and only the roof rat of the western world (Rattus rattus isolated patches of ground cover. Thus rat habi­ rat/us) rather than to subspecies of the Asian tat was relatively limited. mainland or western Pacific (Rattus rattus man­ In the early test years, no specific observations sorius and other subspecies) (Johnson, 1962 of Eniwetok rats can be found, though reference and personal communication). While post-war is made to a collection of rats on Engebi in 1948 invasions of western roof rats could have and 1949 (Hines, 1962:106). During the Sand­ swamped and replaced earlier introductions, stone series in 1948, one low-yield device was this seems unlikely, considering known inter­ exploded on Engebi on April 15 from a 200­ actions between the two subspecific groups in foot tower. At H + 1 day the gamma radiation the Carolines (Johnson, 1962). in the islet center was estimated roughly at 12 During the Japanese occupation, a major air R/hr; the accumulated dose, at H + 1 yr, 132 R field installation was constructed on Engebi. As (Laboratory of Radiation Biology, University of Rats at Eniwetok-JAcKsoN 267 Washington). Following the test, no exposed cumulated dose was 1,440 R.) The shot caused vegetation remained standing. Of the 43 plant a tidal wave over Engebi, and only stumps of species recorded from Engebi prior to the test, vegetation remained. Rigili islet, 14 miles from only 20 were not exterminated by the blast (St. Mike crater, had plants and birds scorched by John, 1950). thermonuclear heat. The Greenhouse tests in 1951 on Engebi Many observers supposed that rats on Engebi (two detonations) produced an initial gamma had been wiped out by the combined effects of radiation of 6,400-10,000 R in the islet center the 1952 test. But in 1954 rats were found on (Hines, 1962 :210). At H + 1 yr the accumu­ Engebi. This has led to prolonged speculation lated dose was 44 R. But the Polynesian rats (Hines, 1962:207-210). That the Polynesian apparently continued to exist on Engebi, since rat was indeed exterminated by the thermo­ the affected area was small and probably only nuclear test is a possibility. Roof rats perhaps those rats close to the detonation sites were survived, and their numbers may have been killed. supplemented later by individuals from the sup­ Probably about this time, the roof rat (R. ply boats traveling to Engebi. ratttls) was introduced. It may have arrived a The Laboratory of Radiation Biology (LRB) few years earlier at the main supply areas of the records give weights for 75 rats (identified as atoll on ships from the United States or from Polynesian rats) collected on Engebi in 1954. other areas of the Marshalls where it was abun­ Of these, 71 were surely roof rats, as the ani­ dant. But we have no records of observations, mals were far too big (heavy) to be Polynesian and so this statement is conjectural. rats; four were small enough, but no data on In 1952, in preparation for Mike shot (Ivy sexual maturity were given, so that no certain series), rats on Engebi were collected; no radio­ designation is possible. A poorly preserved rem­ activity in their bones was found (Hines, 1962: nant of one of the larger rats has been examined, 151), though slight activity occurred in other and it was a roof rat. tissues (UWFL-33, 1955). Rats were also col­ During the pre-Nectar period in 1954, there lected on Biijiri and Rojoa. All individuals was considerable experimental transportation of were referred to as Polynesian rats. However, rats (all termed Polynesian rats) from Engebi the single Engebi rat for which size data were to adjoining islets. Some 53 rats were involved, recorded (UWFL-33) was obviously not a Poly­ and the investigator (Major C. Barnes, LRB) re­ nesian rat; its weight (175 grams) was too great. cords in his field notes that some of the rats In all probability it was a roof rat. Rats from on Engebi were of a "new gray species." This the other two islets were most likely Polynesian could be taken to indicate that two rat species rats, as judged from their weights (82 grams or were present at this time. I prefer to discount less) . this hypothesis, since the measurements as well A thermonuclear device exploded on Novem­ as two photographs of rats (identified as Poly­ ber 1, 1952, formed Mike crater on the former nesian) show them quite clearly to be roof rats.
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