Rats and pigs are gone. The forest floor is green again.

One year after rats and feral pigs were removed from Nu'utele Island, native seedlings are carpeting the forest floor and birds are nesting in the open again. Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the nonprofit Island Conservation and community members from nearby Aleipata ran the eradication, baiting and trapping rats while hunting pigs across rugged terrain. Field teams spent more than 130 days on the island between March 2025 and May 2026. Former New Zealand rugby player Glen Osborne joined the hunting teams tracking down the last feral pigs. The response was fast. Within a month, researchers found shy ground dove nests holding eggs in bird's-nest ferns, a spot that would have been easy pickings before. They also recorded a land crab species never documented on the island. "People are now able to grow and harvest giant taro plants where crops would have failed previously," said project manager Paul Jacques. Next comes the Mao, a threatened forest bird waiting for a home.