Texas Standard. (2023, January 23) Texas Standard for Jan. 23, 2023: New invasive species
sighted in Southeast Texas nature preserve. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/today-on-texas-standard-january-23-2023/
This article discussed an invasive deer species that has made its way into the Texas nature preserve. The deer species is the “axis deer”.” This species is deemed to be very harmful because they “increase the risk of spreading chronic wasting disease, a deadly, highly transmissible neurologic disease that affects animals like deer, elk, and moose.” They also eat the same food as the white tail deer, so they could be outcompeting them for a common resource. These deer are originally from India and Nepal and were bought and brought here by some Texas citizens. The deer managed to escape from their designated area and have made their way into the wild. Texas made it legal for citizens to hunt as many as they wanted without having to pay or report.
This article is related to Environmental Science because it is about an invasive species posing a threat to a natural ecosystem. This species will negatively affect the Texas wildlife preserve ecosystem because it will overcrowd the areas with its own species. This will happen because it can eat the plants that the white tailed deer do not eat, so it could grow its numbers on that food source and once there are too many invasive deer eating their specific plant, they will shift over to the white tailed deer feed. This will lead to mass starvation and even extinction, starting a food web crisis..
I find this very interesting that Texas allows hunting without fees, licenses, and regulations. Couldn’t the no regulations in fact cause issues of overhunting and create other issues? I do agree with your points about something needing to be done to preserve the food web.
thanks for reading my post. I think that there not being any regulations can cause overhunting, but that may be necessary to prevent native species from going extinct. Also, regulations can always be added or changed.
I still cannot believe that Texas is open about gun and hunting regulations. Since some individuals brought the deer that has escaped, was there any consequences towards those people? What are some solutions to prevent the deer from over populating, and have people tried hunting?
thanks for reading my post. i think the people will be found and charged. solutions to prevent the dear from overpopulating would be to incentivize hunting them.