Invasive mammals have a severe impact on the environment. Invasive species are animals and plants introduced by human activities as follows: (1) accidentally as “stowaways” on ships (rats and mice) and planes (brown tree snakes) or following escape from captivity (e.g., gray squirrels in the United Kingdom) or thoughtlessly released (e.g., pet Burmese pythons released into the Everglades in the USA) (2) deliberately introduced for esthetics (e.g., starlings), as game species (e.g., deer), for biological control, or for fur and (3) as populations of feral domestic animals (e.g., camels, cats, dogs/dingos, donkeys, horses, and rabbits). Invasive species are animals or plants that are nonnative to the region that were introduced by human intervention. Scanes, in Animals and Human Society, 2018 Summary The concern of ecologists over invasive species is due to the damage invasive species cause to natural plant communities.Ĭolin G. While some authors criticize the furor over invasive species as being akin to xenophobia, the perspective that invasive species are problematic in natural areas is fundamentally dissimilar to the idea that foreigners can cause harm to a society. Exotic species introductions are generally unintentional, although there are many documented cases of species being transported to other continents for horticultural or agricultural purposes.įrom a philosophical perspective, invasive species are not just another species for the species-richness list because invasive species cause environmental degradation. Continents will have more species as new invasive species arrive, but the displacement and extinction of native species caused by invasive species ultimately will cause the overall worldwide number of species to decrease.
Cons of introducing non native game species free#
This relatively free movement of biota between continents has created a ‘New Pangea’. New invasions of species have paralleled the movements of humans worldwide, and the associated explosion of invasive species has caused the decline of native species on their continents of origin. While species have moved between continents for millennia, global travel by humans has greatly accelerated the rate of intercontinental movement of species. Invasive species are those species that arrived on continents after the sixteenth century after human global travel, commerce, and migration increased. Invasive aquatic species can cut off local commerce by cutting off boating along rivers, and cause local electricity emergencies by clogging the operation of hydroelectric dams, particularly in countries such as New Zealand that rely on hydroelectric power. Once established, invasive species cause many problems for humans in that they degrade natural communities, and damage agricultural species with pests and diseases. Some invaders familiar in North America include the black rat, house sparrow, and kudzu ( Rattus rattus, Passer domesticus, Pueraria montana var. Benign components of their original habitats, invasive species include plants, mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, arthropods, mollusks, and plant and animal diseases. Invasive species aggressively invade new continents so that these species become dominant in their new geographical areas. Middleton, in Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2008 Global Perspective