Hey all, we are sitting in the library doing some research today, and planning for all of our upcoming tasks. Tomorrow is our first action day and we are pretty excited. We have an early start (8 a.m.) but you know what they say, the early bird gets the worm.
Anyway, I found some more cool information today while doing some quick research. National geographic published an article that presents some situations in which not all “invasive” species are bad. Emma Marris, author of this article, gives many compelling arguments. Let’s look at the Hippopotamus. The Hippo is a native African species but is near extinction in sub-Saharan Africa. However, they are multiplying very quickly in lakes in Columbia after being imported by Pablo Escobar.
We see a very similar situation with the Aldabra tortoise on the islands of Mauritius. In this case, Mauritius lost all of their giant tortoises. Because of this, all of the fruit bearing tree seeds that were transported by the tortoises have declined in population rapidly. These new tortoises, relatives of the previous tortoises, are beginning to remedy this issue.
So, as we can see in this post and our previous research update, it is important to understand and research the whole issue. When going into this project I had only known that invasive species were bad, but the more I research this topic the more my opinion begins to change. Yes, there are some invasive species that are severely harmful (Zebra Mussel), but some coexist and form great relationships with the native species around them.
Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-invasive-species-conservation-biology-extinction-climate-science/
Stay Tuned for another post tomorrow filled with pictures and updates on our action!