The most aggressive invasive species of living organisms. The most dangerous invasive animal species that destroy entire ecosystems Invasive fish species

In nature, there are many species of animals that pose a danger to others, feed on them or act as dominants. This is not as scary as it seems at first glance - usually everything in nature is balanced in such a way that all species, despite the death of individual individuals, survive. However, the unhindered invasion of predators into the habitat where they should not be leads to catastrophic consequences - species and entire ecosystems disappear, and sometimes even human dwellings turn out to be insufficient protection.

1. Starfish

Looking like an alien invader, the starfish is a nightmare with skin covered in sharp needles. Usually starfish are up to 33 cm in diameter and have five rays protruding from the body, which are covered with razor-sharp spines that protect them from most predators. The stars themselves feed on coral polyps.

Starfish have become a problem in their native ecosystem due to environmental changes. Thanks to their insatiable appetite and rapid breeding rate, each star in the "herd" can consume up to six m2 of coral reefs per year, destroying massive patches.

Scientists believe that the too rapid increase in the number of starfish is caused by human-induced changes in the ocean ecosystem, primarily associated with an increased content of nutrient pollution. As a result, programs have been implemented in some areas to destroy starfish using lethal toxins.

2. European starling

Starlings were brought to North America by nostalgic settlers, apparently under the influence of Shakespeare, who in one of his plays described the hero Eugene Scheffelin, a self-proclaimed messiah who called on everyone who left their homeland to lead a bird to a foreign land. 60 starlings were indeed delivered to America in this way, though much later, and released into the wild in Manhattan's Central Park.

Starlings quickly spread across the continent from Central America to Alaska: they invaded cities and fields, destroyed crops, and partially or completely exterminated many native birds, including woodpeckers, tits and swallows.

Flocks of starlings threaten planes - once 62 people died due to the fact that a starling was sucked into the engine of an airliner. Despite large-scale control programs, the number of European starlings in North America is currently about 150 million individuals.

3 Giant Canada Goose

Although Canada does not have a bird that serves as a symbol of the country, the vast majority of wildlife enthusiasts would attribute this role to the Canada goose, since there are more birds of this species in Canada than any other. However, Canada is a large enough country to have room for several subspecies of goose with different habitats and lifestyles.

Canada goose are responsible for the gradual destruction of the coastline along the mouth of the Gulf of Georgia. This area is of great importance as it is a stopover for many species of migratory birds, and it is also the main habitat for salmon, an endangered game fish.

Wildlife researcher Neil C. Doe has conducted field studies on the state of the mouth of the bay and published results showing that geese destroy the natural habitat of many animals and cause disturbances in the food chain.

4. Dark tiger python

The majority of invasive species are small animals, however, dark tiger pythons are huge and potentially deadly giants. They first appeared in the Everglades National Park (Florida), the world famous marsh region. This monster, brought to America by conquistadors, is one of the largest snakes on the planet, it grows up to five meters in length and weighs about 90 kg.

Now the number of snakes in the Everglades reaches several thousand individuals, and this is more than in their original habitat in South Asia. Giant pythons, with their powerful jaws and sharp teeth, threaten to destroy the ecosystem of the wetland region as they quickly decimate native species, including the normally invulnerable American alligators.

State conservation authorities consider the destruction of snakes in this region one of the priorities, but to date, all measures taken have been ineffective.

5. Yeah (cane toad)

Yep, or the cane toad, is living proof that introducing a second invasive species to control the numbers of one already existing invader can lead to even worse disasters. A huge toxic amphibian (some individuals can weigh about two kg and grow up to 23 cm in length) originally from Central and South America was brought to the islands to reduce the number of beetles devouring sugar cane plantations.

Instead, in order to exterminate the beetles and calm down on this, the Aghas bred over a vast territory, bringing the local fauna into decline. They hunt, among other things, predatory lizards, marsupial mammals and songbirds, and even ruin the egg laying of man-eating sea crocodiles.

As with other invasive species, the number of cane toads remains artificially high in the new environment due to the lack of predators that can feed on them and are resistant to toxins.

The proposal to reduce the population of toads with the help of viruses has raised concerns - in the future, such a measure could cause a chain reaction and cause irreparable damage to the local fauna. By a strange coincidence, the natural toad toxin is currently being used to kill tadpoles.

6. Brown boyga

If a predatory invasive species ends up on an island, then the native species usually lack the ability to cope with a threat that they have never encountered before. Coupled with the absence of predators higher up in the food chain, this could lead to the extinction of native species.

When brown boygies arrived on Guam after World War II, probably as stowaways in the cargo holds of ships, they caused the biggest environmental disaster ever caused by introductions.

Poisonous snakes have destroyed most of the vertebrates native to the forests of the island, they also bite people, and their bites are very painful. In addition, the Boigis have caused frequent power outages as they have invaded human settlements.

In safe conditions, boigas grow up to three meters in length due to an unnaturally large amount of food. To control the number of reptiles, the introduction of toxins into dead mice, which snakes love to eat, is used.

7. Plague rats and mice

On ships, not only people cross the oceans, but also their mortal enemies - rats and mice. Sometimes disease-carrying, rodents become a death sentence for the entire population of seabirds when they land with people on shore: they eat eggs, young and sometimes even adult petrels, puffins and other wetland birds that are not able to protect their nests from land-based predators. .

The presence of invasive rats contributes to the global extinction of seabirds: for example, rats exterminate up to 25,000 petrel chicks per year. No less dangerous are invasive house mice that harm species that are already endangered, for example, Tristan albatrosses: mice not only ruin their clutches, but also eat chicks alive.

8. Domestic cat

Cats are considered man's second best friends, but they also have a reputation as the most dangerous invasive predators, as they intensively destroy the local fauna when they find themselves in a foreign environment. Through direct and indirect human assistance, stray cats have killed millions of continental songbirds, ill-equipped to fend off stealth attacks from a growing number of predators.

The presence of cats on the islands has catastrophic consequences: an unprecedented case is known when the cat of one person caused the complete extinction of one of the bird species in New Zealand - the Stefanov bush wren.

On many islands and continents, invasive cats have reduced bird and small mammal populations. However, there is a downside: some scientists believe that cats can help humans control populations of small predators such as rats.

9 Crab Eating Macaque

Most often, ecologists call humans the main invasive species on the planet, but we rarely imagine monkeys in this role. However, crab-eating macaques are included in the list of the 100 most dangerous invasive species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Crab-eating macaques are carnivorous primates that have invaded a number of islands in an unnatural habitat for them thanks to human assistance.

Like many terrestrial predators, crabeater macaques, which also have the rudiments of intelligence, threaten the reproduction of tropical birds and, according to some experts, may be responsible for the rapid extinction of already endangered species.

Macaques can also pose a danger to humans because they carry a deadly strain of the herpes virus that has symptoms similar to herpes simplex, but without proper treatment can lead to brain damage and death.

10. Cow corpse

Initially, cow trupials lived on the plains of North America, where they coexisted with buffaloes and fed on insects climbing around these large herbivorous insects. However, the increase in the number of buffaloes began to prevent the birds from building nests and raising offspring - then the cow corpses began to throw their eggs into the nests of other birds, which is why their own chicks of these species cannot develop normally.

In addition, the reduction of forest areas in some habitats of trupials led to their spread to thousands of km2 of forests, where they caused a decrease in the number of forest songbirds, whose own chicks were doomed to starvation.

However, conservationists sometimes call cow corpses a natural invasive species, since their homeland was the same territories where they live now, no one brought them there. However, cow corpses have managed to reduce even the rare Kirtland treeworts.

The most dangerous animals that can instantly adapt to new living conditions. They have either already destroyed or are now engaged in the destruction of other animals. Some species of animals are engaged in the creation of supercolonies on a planetary scale, while others destroy all zooplankton and animals at an incredible rate.

Source: www.hormigas.org

Argentine ants originally lived only in South America, but now their colonies exist in Southern Europe, the USA, and also in Asia. In Europe, the largest colony of Argentine ants stretches for 6 thousand km, stretching along the entire Mediterranean coast of Spain, France, Monaco and Italy. The ant colony in the USA (California) has already grown to 900 km. The third colony of Argentine ants is located on the west coast of Japan. All three Argentine ant colonies were found to be tolerant of each other, ie. form a huge supercolony on a planetary scale.

The homeland of the giant Achatina is the coastal part of East Africa. During the Second World War, this mollusk spread throughout Oceania, the Caribbean, and America. The expansion of the range of Achatina was stopped due to the introduced quarantine. The incipient invasion of the snail in the United States was prevented. Achatina giant is a dangerous species, since Achatina are hermaphrodites, that is, each individual has male and female genital organs. At a low population density, self-fertilization is possible. The snail has learned to master all kinds of biotopes: coastal lowlands, river valleys, forests, shrubs, as well as fields and arable lands. Achatina giant is recognized as an extremely dangerous agricultural pest.

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

The American signal crayfish originally lived in North America. In the 20th century, it spread in Europe, because it is not only resistant to crayfish plague, but is itself its distributor. Endemics are not able to compete with the American signal cancer. Currently found in Europe (on the territory of 25 countries), as well as in Russia.

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

The deer is included in the list of the most dangerous invasive species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The red deer is most dangerous in South America, where the rare South Andean deer competes with it for food. In Argentina, red deer have spread to many national parks. In some regions, the red deer does not allow the populations of local plant species, which are especially actively used for food, to recover, thus affecting plant diversity.

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

The venous rapana is a predator that could initially be found only in the Peter the Great Bay, as well as off the coast of Japan, but in 1947 the rapana was accidentally brought into the Black Sea. Due to the absence of natural enemies in the sea, the mollusk population instantly grew and caused great damage to the fauna of the Black Sea. In the future, due to intensive maritime transport, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe rapana increased: now it inhabited the entire Mediterranean Sea, as well as the North Sea. There is evidence that the rapana has already entered the waters of South America.

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

India is considered the birthplace of the tobacco whitefly. Whiteflies are dangerous because their larvae suck plant juices and transmit phytopathogenic viruses. A particularly dangerous insect for melons, vegetables and industrial crops. Berry, citrus and forest tree plantations are also affected. Whiteflies have settled on all continents (except Antarctica).

Source: c1.staticflickr.com

Yellow crazy ants originally lived only in West Africa. Now colonies of these ants are found in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Oceania. Destroyed a unique ecosystem on Christmas Island. Yellow crazy ants are capable of creating supercolonies (i.e. they do not compete with each other). Use human transport to capture new territories. Destroy other insects, arachnids, molluscs. Their diet also includes grains and seeds.

Short story. The Saint Lawrence Seaway was opened on June 26, 1959. It opened the way for ocean-going cargo ships all the way to the Great Lakes of North America, which improved the economic condition of the region and increased the efficiency of transport between the US and Canada. Unfortunately, it has also caused invasive animal species to enter the country. Sometimes they were transferred to a new land or to a new body of water for a specific purpose, sometimes quite by accident. Often, the introduction of alien species into a particular area has undesirable consequences for their new home and neighbors. Today we list 10 of the most annoying (from our point of view, although everyone may have their own opinion on this), or even the most harmful, invasive species from around the world.

10. Asian carp (Motley and silver carp)

Asian carp entered the Mississippi River basin as a result of flooding that overwhelmed ponds at farm ponds and sewage treatment plants. Carp was brought in by farmers to control rampant planktonic algae, and now this non-commercial filter-feeding fish is threatening to invade the Great Lakes as well. You may have seen on TV or on the Internet how Asian carp jump out of the water in hundreds, disturbed by the operation of outboard motors, then land on the bottom of the boats and injure the fishermen sitting in them. Fast growing and capable of reaching over 4 meters in length and over 40 kilograms in weight, they pose a serious threat to fisheries in the Great Lakes region.

9. Rabbits

After the rabbits, brought to Australia as a source of food in 1788, were released into the wild, their population increased dramatically. As a result, they began to eat a lot of crops and managed to spread far beyond the countryside. Between 1901 and 1907, an extremely long (over 2,000 km) "rabbit fence" was built in Western Australia, at a total cost of £330,000.

Amazing Fact: its longest section, 1,833 kilometers (out of 5,614 kilometers), is the longest continuous fence in the world. Camels were brought here to help the workers maintain this fence in good condition. Finally, in 1950, the emergence of the myxomatosis virus made it possible to get rid of enough rabbits to bring their population to an acceptable size.

8. Water hyacinths

Warm-weather-loving aquatic plants from South America and their beautiful flowers made people make the blunder of bringing them to their homes, where they quickly covered the water surface and thus blocked the access of sunlight to other plants. As a result, this led to a decrease in oxygen in the water, causing damage to wildlife, which caused the death of other plants that provided food and shelter for fish and other aquatic animals. The overgrowth of water hyacinth has also caused the spread of mosquitoes. Blocking waterways in tropical and subtropical Africa, as well as in the southern United States and Mexico, hyacinths have now become a problem in Australia and Asia. Brought to the US in 1884 during the New Orleans World's Fair, they spread so quickly that they began to block shipping channels.

Amazing Fact: in 1910, a bill to bring hippos into Louisiana was only 1 vote short of solving the water hyacinth problem!

7. Kudzu

The fast growing and spreading Asian vine, also known as the Japanese arrowroot or kudzu, was brought to the United States in 1876 during the Philadelphia World's Fair and quickly expanded throughout the southeastern part of the country. Kudzu grows fast enough to kill native plants and shrubs, depriving them of light and nutrients. It is considered a noxious weed and has recently been found in Southern Canada.

6. Tilapia

Familiar members of the cichlid family to aquarium lovers, tilapia are a common all-purpose fish species raised in hatcheries for human consumption. Released around the world, on purpose or by accident, these hardy fish have made it to all waterways that remain at least slightly warm (the minimum temperature required to survive is 7-11 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the year, and have developed a tolerance for fresh, brackish and coastal salt water, often crowding out native species. In some places, they survived the cold winters, living near the warm waters of power plants. Breeding throughout the summer, and not just once a year, as many native species do, these voracious herbivores have entered the lakes of the African Rift Valley (especially spread in Lake Nyasa), where they have partially replaced, and even threaten to completely destroy, most of the 1000 or so native cichlid species.

5. Dreissena / Quagga mussels

Introduced into rivers in the Great Lakes region along with the ballast water of ocean-going freighters that travel the St. Lawrence River, they have invaded many other waterways in lakes and rivers, where they breed in such huge numbers that they cover the internal parts of boat engines and water intakes, and colonize every rock and ledge in their path. At first it seemed that the native fish of the Great Lakes did not eat zebrafish, but, apparently, they adapted to them and still began to eat them. Unfortunately, mussels, which act as a natural filter, accumulate large amounts of toxins and the fish that eat them end up contaminated with the same toxins and become unfit for food.

4. Toad-yeah

This world's largest toad (about 1 meter long) is native to Central and South America and was brought to Australia in 1935 in the hope that it would help reduce what farmers believed were harmful cane beetles that threatened harvest of sugar cane. Voracious toads began to reproduce the genus at a speed that no one expected from them. Eating almost everything that gets into their mouth (for example, some fed them mice and dog food, among other things), cane toads even eat their own tadpoles and everything that comes into their field of view, with the exception of, of course, cane beetles, for which they were brought. To make matters worse, they release a milky-white toxin on the surface of their skin that often kills dogs, birds of prey, snakes, and lizards. Cane toads were so hated in Australia that such "sports" as "aha golf" and "aha cricket" began to spread widely in the country, where instead of balls they began to use toads!

3. Gray rat

Also known as the Pasyuk or Barn Rat, this animal, native to Northern China, has spread throughout the world (except probably Antarctica) by transport on ships and other vehicles. Arguably the most "successful" mammals on Earth, these rodents spread disease and destroy millions of tons of human and animal food each year. Their number is only partially controlled through the use of cats and small dogs, and therefore the more people live in a certain area, the more rats can be found there.

2. Carp

An ancient Eurasian edible fish species, the hardy big brother of the common carp was brought to North America by invading European settlers. And just to say that they successfully completed this migration would be a gross understatement. Found in rivers and lakes throughout the United States and much of Canada and Mexico, cyprinid fish can grow up to nearly 45 kilograms. At the same time, the fish is so smart that it is almost impossible to catch it with artificial bait. Moreover, Americans do not consider carp suitable for food. And he himself is a lover of easy money, and therefore he is looking for food at the bottom, rummaging in the mud and eating the caviar of other fish.

1. Pigeons

Brought to North America by European settlers in the 1600s, these well-known "flying rats" live in both cities and rural areas. Forming large urban flocks, they leave a huge amount of pigeon droppings on cars, street furniture and everything else. Sometimes large flocks pose a danger even to aircraft. Another particularly irritating feature is their habit of beating off feeders designed to attract native songbirds.

The material was prepared by Natalia Zakalyk - according to the material

Alla Kuklina,
Candidate of Biological Sciences, Main Botanical Garden. N. V. Tsitsina RAS
Yulia Vinogradova,
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Main Botanical Garden named after. N. V. Tsitsina RAS
"Science and Life" №5, 2015

Over the past 200 years, the flora of many countries of the world has changed significantly. Almost a third of the total number of species is now made up of alien plants that have successfully taken root in their new homeland. Seeds or cuttings of unknown plants come with transport, containers from imported fruits or vegetables, or as an admixture with imported goods, especially grain; Our compatriots also bring them from tourist trips.

Invasive plant species

The most aggressive alien species, which displace local, native plants, are classified into a special group - invasive species. Today, there are more than 300 invasive species in 57 countries of the world; in the flora of central Russia - so far 52 species, but this list is constantly updated due to new "uninvited" guests that violate natural communities. Among them are Michurin's chokeberry (chokeberry), wrinkled rose, and hard-haired rudbeckia.

A significant part of invasive species came to Europe from America. For quite a long time, some of them, such as ash-leaved maple and Pennsylvania ash, were grown as cultivated plants, and only later they began to actively populate neighboring territories.

"Escaped" from the collections of botanical gardens are small-flowered galinzoga, prickly echinocystis, leafy string, fragrant chamomile, iron-bearing touchy.

The gardens still grow goldenrod, Jerusalem artichoke, Caucasian comfrey, perennial daisy, erect oxalis (especially the purple-leaved form), filiform veronica, spiked shadberry, and sea buckthorn. Fragments of rhizomes and shoots with seeds of these plants, removed from the plots, remain in the soil for a long time and can spread over considerable distances, creating large colonies capable of populating all free spaces in a decade.

Among the invasive species there are plants that are dangerous to human health. First of all, it is ragweed. In the southern regions of Russia, especially in the Stavropol Territory, Rostov and Volgograd regions, its pollen is one of the strongest allergens. During the flowering period of ragweed, 40% of people suffering from hay fever are forced to take sick leave. Ambrosia pollen circulates in the air outside of these regions as well.

Echinocystis lobata ( Echinocystis lobata). North American seed plant: one plant produces up to 100 seeds. Massively found in central Russia. Usually, its shoots spread along the ground or wrap around bushes along the river, drowning out the growth of representatives of the natural flora. Photo by Alla Kuklina

Ambrosia sagebrush ( Ambrosia artemisiifolia). The plant is native to North America. The secondary range occupies the south of European Russia, the Southern Urals (the ragweed is also introduced here) and the south of the Far East. In central Russia, ragweed is brought with seeds of agricultural crops (sunflower, hemp, alfalfa, etc.), the harvesting of which coincides with the maturation of the weed. Photo by Natalia Reshetnikova

In Russia, ragweed was first registered in 1918, but this plant came to Europe half a century earlier. The fight against ambrosia requires a lot of money. In Germany, for example, almost 20% of all state spending on the elimination of weeds is spent on controlling its resettlement.

Do not forget that the pollen of ash-leaved maple, Pennsylvania ash, as well as cocklebur cyclaena can also cause allergies.

Invasive species are a danger to our nature. Getting into meadows or forests, they not only compete with local native species for light and nutrients, but subsequently even displace some of them or, forming hybrids with them, contribute to a change in the genetic diversity of plant communities.

A significant problem is created by the overgrowth of farmland with multi-leaved lupine and oriental goat's rue. In the forests where lupine is introduced, mushrooms stop growing, because nitrogen-fixing bacteria in lupine tubers transform the soil, and an excess of nitrogen negatively affects the mycelium. Increasingly, one can meet in the meadows and wastelands of the Moscow, Kaluga and Kursk regions huge thickets of North American plants: giant goldenrod, lobed echinocystis, Canadian small-flowered. With a strong clogging of the fields with the last of the listed plants, the yield is reduced, and the dry stems of this weed are hammered into the combine. Its appearance on vineyards inhibits the growth of the vine.

Many people are familiar with the giant umbrellas of Sosnovsky's hogweed, a widespread weed that inhabited large meadows and banks of reservoirs. This plant can cause photodermatitis, which manifests itself in the form of skin burns that do not heal for a long time.

For animal husbandry, invasive species are dangerous, classified as quarantine weeds, among them - few-flowered cenhrus. On the territory of Russia, this plant penetrated up to the Volgograd and Belgorod regions. Cenchrus is an annual grass with a flat branched stem that can take root at nodes in contact with the soil. This dangerous species settles, attaching to human clothing, animal hair, sticking into car tires. Moves along with the streams of melt water. Its spikelets with a prickly wrapper cause long-term non-healing mouth ulcers in pets, which can later become a focus of severe infectious diseases. Getting on arable lands and pastures, in gardens and orchards, tsenhrus reduces the yield of forage grasses, corn, melons and row crops.

The economic damage in agriculture, forestry and water management from biological invasions is enormous. According to estimates by the UK Environment Agency, the cost of eradicating the aggressively growing impatiens iron in England and Wales alone could reach more than 210 million euros.

American ecologist David Peimentel has calculated that the damage from invasive species worldwide is more than $1.4 trillion, that is, approximately 5% of the global economy. In total, the United States loses $137 billion from uninvited plants, India - $117 billion, Brazil - $50 billion.

The costs of collecting information about invasive species are also high. The cost of investments in the DAISIE information project (containing data on 2122 alien species in 27 EU countries) reaches 3.4 million euros, and up to 84 thousand euros. However, in any case, such investments are significantly lower than the costs associated with the control of alien species, which exceed 12 billion euros per year in Europe.

Biodiversity Conservation Strategy

Scientists in many countries are concerned about the negative impact of phytoinvasions on agriculture, human health and biological diversity. They understand how great the risk of penetration of dangerous plant species from the territories of neighboring states is, therefore, they unite efforts to control the spread of aggressive species.

In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), during the UN Conference on Environment and Development of the Environment, the Convention on Biological Diversity was submitted for signing by all states, which provided for a number of measures to prevent biological invasions, mitigate their consequences and extensive monitoring.

In 2010, the conference of the countries-participants of the UN Convention on Biodiversity in the city of Nagoya (Japan) approved a new strategic plan for the conservation of biodiversity and formulated 20 points that contribute to the conservation of the planet's wildlife. Here is one of them: “By 2020, invasive alien species and the vectors of their penetration into natural communities should be identified and prioritized. The most threatening (aggressive) species should be tightly controlled or destroyed, and measures to control the distribution pathways of such species to prevent their introduction and naturalization should be developed and adopted.

In order to reduce the damage from unwanted plants, specialists will have to continue a comprehensive study of various areas of invasive biology, study the features of the ongoing process in a number of species, identify their transit routes and directions for the introduction of alien species, and learn how to predict and prevent mass phytoinvasions. An essential foundation for solving this problem will be the creation of a unified database on invasive species in Russia and the development of legislative acts aimed at controlling the spread and destruction of dangerous plants.

Invasive are the types of living organisms that, as a result of the introduction (settlement of new species brought from other parts of the earth, to places where they did not previously live) begin to actively seize new territories, displacing the indigenous inhabitants. Below are examples of the most unsuccessful introduction of species in the history of mankind.

Kudzu

Kudzu, she is Pueraria lobed ( Pueraria lobata) is a vine-like plant with leaves similar to wild grapes native to Japan and Southeast Asia. To the south of the USA (to Philadelphia) this plant was introduced in 1876, where it was presented to the local population as a fast-growing plant that effectively restrains the development of soil erosion. After 50 years, this plant in the United States began to be called "the vine that swallowed the south." Indeed, Kudzu has the ability to grow rapidly. Already in the second year, under favorable climatic conditions and the presence of the necessary support, this plant can reach a height of 30 meters, and in the absence of support it spreads horizontally, absorbing everything in its path: abandoned houses, cars, power lines, other trees and shrubs.

This plant also penetrated the territory of Russia and at the present time it is found mainly on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Below is a photo of Pueraria, which was taken by me with a mobile phone camera on one of the streets of Sochi.

brazilian plant was brought to Asia from Brazil during World War II as live camouflage for combat units. Since then, this plant has been actively conquering a new habitat for itself.
Now this plant can be found even in Nepal. So Nepal's Chitwan National Park has been unsuccessfully fighting against . It has already swallowed up 20% of the national park area, which poses a threat to many plant species that are a food base for many rare animal species. Changes in natural ecosystems caused by the invasion of this plant have even had a negative impact on the populations of such endangered species of living organisms as the Indian rhinoceros and the Bengal tiger.

rabbits

“The introduction of a few rabbits will not do much harm, but will become just another source of meat and a target for hunters,” Australian farmer Thomas Austin said something similar in 1859 and released 24 rabbits into the wild. By the end of the century, in the absence of natural enemies, the number of rabbits increased so much that many native plant and animal species of Australia were on the verge of extinction. Soils devoid of natural vegetation began to be subjected to severe erosion.

Foxes, introduced to fight rabbits, have caused a catastrophic decline in the number of Tasmanian devils and marsupial anteaters, and not representatives of the Lagomorphs order, introduced from the Old World.

Australian scientists use myxoma virus, which causes myxomatosis, to fight hordes of rabbits (the disease causes the appearance of lethal tumors in the brain and genital organs). In 1950, with the help of this virus, it was possible to reduce the number of wild rabbits from 600 million to 100 million. The most unpredictable reaction to the decline in the number of rabbits was the decline in the number of one of the indigenous species of Australian eagles. During the times of “rabbit lawlessness”, this species of birds of prey has already managed to “get used” to new easy and numerous prey.

cane toads

The history of Australia is rich in examples of unsuccessful introductions of living organisms. In 1935, 60,000 cane toads were released in Queensland, Australia to control insect pests of sugar cane, but these amphibians did not like sugar cane as a habitat, and they dispersed everywhere, leaving pests in perfect health.

Some individuals of cane toads can reach 40 cm in length. These amphibians also do not complain about poor appetite, literally everything goes to them. Unfortunately, the toxic secretions of the skin of toads were not to the taste of Australian predators, and the driest continent of the planet once again faced an uncontrolled increase in the number of aliens.

Not only modern man took an active part in the introduction of new species of living organisms in Australia. Several thousand years ago (~4000 years ago) ancient people brought domestic dogs to the mainland, which became wild and successfully adapted to local conditions, occupying the top link in the food chain of the planet's driest continent, while displacing the largest living marsupial predator, the Australian marsupial wolf. How many other species of living organisms disappeared in total after the appearance of the Dingo on the Australian continent, no one probably knows.

This "handsome", reaching a length of one meter, was brought to Europe from East Asia. The European reservoirs, in which this voracious creature turned out, lost all living things in an instant. The most unpleasant thing was that this fish is able to crawl on its belly overland from one reservoir to another and at the same time breathe atmospheric air for four days.

Our compatriot Yevgeny Shiffelin, a major manufacturer of medicines and a lover of Shakespeare, was involved in the appearance of the European starling on the North American continent. In 1890, he released 60 birds in New York's Central Park, and 40 more the following year. The starlings liked the New World. Forming numerous states with a number of birds reaching a million, they make devastating raids on agricultural land, causing damage to the American economy by 800 million dollars annually. In addition, birds cause many plane crashes.

Burmese pythons brought to the United States have bred in the south of the country. There are already 30,000 of them in the Florida National Park. Such a large snake, reaching a length of 6 meters, has no natural enemies on the North American continent. Even alligators are found in the stomach of these snakes. According to American naturalists, it will contribute to the further advancement of these snakes to the north of the country.

This type of squirrel was brought to the UK from North America. Local British red squirrels are smaller in size, and they have not been able to compete with larger and more aggressive comrades from across the ocean. In addition, foreigners brought a deadly virus from the New World, which began to "mow down" the populations of red squirrels in Great Britain.
The authorities of Britain in every possible way stimulate the hunt for foreign squirrels, praising the taste and health benefits of squirrel meat.

Aggressive African bees were introduced to Brazil from Tanzania as a replacement for European honey bees. African bees took to the New World conditions and spread throughout Brazil and even crossed all the countries of Central America, ending up in the southern states of the United States. A large number of animals and people become victims of their aggression every year.

The weight of individual individuals of the Asian carp can exceed 45 kilograms. Initially, this fish was brought to one of the ponds in the United States, but as a result of the flood, it ended up in the waters of the Mississippi River, where it successfully multiplied, “eating” local fish species.

Rats have already settled on 90% of the islands of the oceans. As a result, 60% of the bird and reptile species of most of the islands have disappeared forever. Rat Island is a classic example of such an island. (one of the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska). In 1789, as a result of the wreck of a Japanese ship, Norwegian rats ended up on the shores of this island. Just a few years later, many species of sea birds disappeared from the island. In 2008, the US authorities scattered packages of rat poison all over the island and thus stopped the rampage of rats.

Examples of failed unintentional and intentional introductions go on and on (goats in the Galapagos; starfish off the coast of Hawaii; foxes and cats in Australia; musky rat and raccoon dog in Europe, etc., etc.).

Russia also knows many examples of intentional and unintentional introductions (Rapan, which from the Far Eastern waters was unintentionally introduced into the waters of the Black Sea, as a result of which the Black Sea mussels and oysters were almost completely destroyed, as well as the well-known Dreissen mollusk, Comb jelly Mnemiopsis, Rotan, Ambrosia, Sosnovsky's hogweed, Golden potato nematode, Colorado potato beetle , Phomopsis mushroom, etc.).

Currently, the preliminary list of introduced adventitious species in Russia includes over 1000 species!

(Visited 10 190 times, 7 visits today)