Arnold, Naomi. “An Island Nation’s Audacious Effort to Save Its Unique Wildlife.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Jan. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/12/31/island-nation-unique-wildlife/.
New Zealand plans to completely eradicate all mammalian predators, specifically invasive species, in its ongoing multimillion dollar plan “Predator Free 2050”. As one could have guessed, the plan is supposed to end in 2050, which shows New Zealand’s degree of ambition. One island of the New Zealand Coast, Coal island, has faced the implementations of the plan first-hand. Around the 1800’s, a mammal called a stoat was introduced to the region. The original intention of introducing stoats to Coal Island was to kill off the overrun rabbit population, and naturally the mammal soon became a top predator in the region. After the rabbit population died out, Stouts began targeting animals like seabirds, and even the famous Kakapo Parrot. Despite this setback, New Zealand isn’t new to eradicating invasive species. New Zealanders originally eradicate mice from the region by dropping poison cereal across the island. While the plan is still working out, this hasn’t stopped a persistent population of stouts to survive. Climate change has also introduced a new, warmer climate into areas previously unreachable by stouts, causing them to expand their existing habitats. A project is also going on to introduce haast tokoeka kiwis, a “nationally critical” near-extinct species into the area. While the birds should be able to fend off stoats and populate, this will take a while to happen.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this article is how hard it can be to extract invasive species from a region. Stoats populated the region incredibly quickly since they were an alpha predator in the region, due to their ability to hunt the overpopulated rabbits of Coal Island. One may also highlight the fact that Stoats are only one of tons of other species introduced to non-native areas, especially in the past. Many people of the past accidentally introduced invasive species through international trade or didn’t consider the effects they would have on the future, resulting in tons of near-extinct animals and destroyed ecosystems.
I find this article interesting also because it shows how that humans need to find a better way to get rid of invasive species because clearly our methods are not working well enough. I also think that we need to get rid of the ignorance around invasive species because people need to understand how what they are bringing in can be detrimental to an environment.
Thanks for commenting. I agree as well, there definitely needs to be more research gone into how we can eradicate invasive species. The biggest issue is not damaging species who aren’t invasive.
I like how you ended with these invasive species are destroying ecosystems, which they are. What invasive species live in the United States?
Most of my other articles are about some US species. These include Hemlock, the japanese beetle, An invasive caterpillar, and a species of ants.
I wonder what kind of specific measures the talk about implementing to stop invasive species. It must be quite hard to make a policy that is effective in eradicating invasive species.
It definitely is. The biggest issue is finding out how to get rid of invasive species without damaging pre-existing species.