Nu’utele Island, situated within the Aleipata Island Group off the eastern end of Upolu Island, in Apia stands as a vital focal point for conservation efforts in Samoa and is recognised as a critical biodiversity hotspot as it holds intact native forests and significant populations of endangered land-birds, seabirds, and nesting turtles.
The island could serve as a sanctuary for several of Samoa’s threatened species, offering potential refuge from the introduced mammalian pests that plague larger inhabited islands however, the island's ecological integrity has been severely threatened by the introduction of invasive rat species and, more recently, feral pigs.
Historically, rats were inadvertently introduced to Nu’utele Island by early Polynesian settlers. The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) is known to be present on the island, however and the black rat (Rattus rattus), introduced to Samoa by European explorers, has not been recorded on the island to date. The invasion of rats has devastating consequences for native biodiversity as these hungry rodents rapidly multiply and wreak havoc on the island's fragile ecosystem.
