Monster mice on the rampage

One of Gough Island's "monster mice" feeds on a dead seabird chick. Picture / Reuters

Giant mice are running amok on a small South Atlantic island, eating metre-high albatross chicks alive and threatening the world's most important seabird colony.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said rapacious rodents - ordinary house mice who have "evolved" to three times their normal size - are orchestrating avian carnage on Gough Island, home to about 10 million birds.

A society spokesman said it was not clear how the birds were killed: "The chicks weigh up to 10kg and the mice weigh 35g - it is like a tabby cat attacking a hippopotamus."