The rats of Easter Island

Were rats somehow involved in the demise of Easter Island? Well, rats and Europeans?



The accepted wisdom has been this: The natives deforested the land in order to transport the 10-ton stone statues for which the island is renowned. This deforestation brought about erosion and the destruction of farmland. Then the natives destroyed themselves in a cannibalistic civil war in the 17th century.



But now there’s a new theory — and it’s quite fascinating.