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That's an aspirational goal but there has been no practical methods proposed to actually achieve it.

I would bet that it could be done. It might not be cheap or easy, but I bet that it could be done.

What I am more dubious about is whether:

• It can be done at the kind of cost that is considered acceptable by the public. I don't see budget numbers in the article.

• It could be done without wiping out other species. One small mammal is much like another small mammal to, say, a poison (which the article is talking about them using today). If you want to wipe out rats without wiping out something else, you're gonna need a pretty darn selective method of killing.

• Rats can be kept out once killed off in New Zealand. Rats are pretty much everywhere, and they got there because they're pretty good at hitching rides. I can believe that they might keep them off a small island with little shipping traffic, but the main islands receiving shipments from around the world?