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A reflection paper on invasive species
An essay on invasive species
An essay on invasive species
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Imagine there are snakes all around you, but you don’t know it. This is what Florida is like now. It's like this because people let their pet snakes go, in the wild and then there are way too many snakes in the wild. Snakes are not the only invasive species there are others like foxes and medfly. Invasive species are a problem, but creative solutions are being tested. Invasive species can take over areas of the earth, and make it hard for other animals to survive. In Australia they have foxes, which are an invasive specie. Foxes are trying to kill penguins, because they are nearly effortless to catch. In 2005 the miniature island population was 800 then went to below 10. Now we have incredibly well trained sheepdogs that protect the penguins
This can get expensive and unsanitary. These non-venomous snakes are tricky to care for and often illegally released into the wild. This dumping, importation for the exotic pet trade, and escaped snakes from Hurricane Andrew is resulting in an established wild population of Burmese pythons in South Florida. II. Facts Native to the jungles and to the grassy marshes of Southeast Asia, the Burmese pythons are said to have been first reported in the Everglades in 2000.
First of all, The snakes are destroying the ecosystem. According to, Burmese Python Not the Ideal Pet, " With no natural predators, these eating machines appear to be wiping out huge numbers of opossums, raccoons, and bobcats, as well as many bird species." This evidence shows that the pythons are eating and destroying all of these animals leading to early extinction which can affect all of the other species that rely on those animals the pythons are eating. Burmese python Not The Ideal Pet also states, "Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons are estimated to be living in the Everglades" This shows that thousands of snakes living on the everglades are destroying these poor animals that don’t deserve this.
A species in particular that I have researched is the red fox or Vulpes vulpes as it is known in the scientific community. The animal is native to North America, Asia and Europe where they thrive in habitats ranging from temperate deserts to boreal forests, but its range spans the entire globe (Tesky 1995). The red fox is omnivorous which means that it feeds on animals and plants equally, which, creates impacts on both types of populations within its habitat. What makes the red fox invasive is its introduction to Australia and Eastern parts of the United States, as a result of migration of Europeans t...
Unable to handle their giant snakes, and unable to find new homes for them, some owners illegally release them into the wild. They are also an invasive species, which means that they are not constrained by natural factors as much as they were in their native habitat. Invasive species have the potential to harm their new environments. The release of Burmese pythons in South Florida is especially troublesome because the subtropical climate and the vast undisturbed habitats of the Everglades enable the species to thrive.
The invasive species, the Burmese Python has done irreparable damage to the Everglades National Park in Florida. A steady decline in mammals has been observed since the introduction of Burmese pythons occurred. Burmese pythons were first introduced into the United States as part of the pet trade which then led to the escape or intentional release out into the wild. The first notation of these species arriving was in the year 2000. However, within just eleven years this invasive species had done such a large amount of damage to Florida’s Ecosystem that many species had gone almost completely extinct.
The piece I chose to do my literary analysis on was the article, The Truth About Invasive Species, written by Alan Burdick. The article states that invasive species are all around us, but the area with the most prominent amount is the suburbs of Miami. It goes into detail about how abundant invasive species are in this area. Most people who would see a strange animal in their lawn or area would be bemused, however for the people of Southern Florida, this is a recurring scene. Burdick states that “virtually everyone in the South Florida, including Hardwick, has a neighbor with a backyard menagerie of lucrative critters on hold for resale”. Burdick describes both how an invasive species is introduced into an ecosystem, and the impact the have on other species upon their arrival.
Invasive species are non-native organisms that occupy habitats and disrupt the natural ecological cycles of the habitat. They threaten the biodiversity of an ecosystem and are biological pollutants Invasive species introduced into new habitats usually maximize their reproduction in their new home and crowd out native species. Their lack of natural predators in their new community allow for a proliferation in growth and expansion as a result of their abundant food supply. Once they are established, invasive species can rarely be eliminated because their new habitat is favorable for their survival.
Exotic snakes such as the python, boa constrictors and anaconda as well as the Monitor and Tegu lizard are taking over central and southern Florida and pose an extreme threat to the eco- system and to the families that are residing there.
(Sept. 23rd, 2011) Exotic Pets Turning Invasive, Threatening Florida. Tech Media. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/16204-florida-invasive-reptiles-amphibians.html. WYKC Channel 3 News (2014, February 14). Investigator: Exotic Animals Living in NE Ohio Neighbourhood [Video File].
Invasive species only started to show up in the United States when the Europeans started to arrive. Beforehand, very limited contact was made in this particular region of the world, so very few invasive species came into North America. When the Europeans arrived in 1492, after Columbus discovered North America, they brought their own culture and essential food and animals with them. At first, it was just the basics of maize, wheat, pumpkins, and squash, but later on it also included cows, chickens, and horses . As more Europeans flocked into the country, non-native species began to appear in the area. Often, as non-native species appeared it led to unintended consequences of destroying gra...
of species due to a variety of causes. Included is out competition, depletion of resources
Invasive species, (also known as invasive alien species or simply alien species) are defined as any organism (plant, animal, pathogen, or other living thing) that is alien (non-native) to an ecosystem, which can cause adverse economical, ecological, or health effects to native species and/or humans. The roots of these problems all stem from the massive negative ecological impact these organisms are having on the environment (CBD, 2009). For all animal extinctions where the cause is known since the 1600’s, invasive alien species have been a contributing factor 40% of the time (CBD, 2006); the second most contributing factor to extinctions after loss of habitat (GC, 2013). By eliminating native species through competition for resources, predation, and transmittal of disease, invasive species continue to reduce biodiversity in almost all ecosystems around the world (CBD, 2009). In the future, this problem may worsen, and if no action is taken, could lead to a cascading ecological problem so large that whole communities or even ecosystems could collapse.
The World Wildlife Fund stated that Australia contains fragments of tropical forests that 15 million years ago may have spanned both Australia and Antarctica. The scattered rainforests contain features of all forest categories, resulting in an assortment of plant communities that are extremely diverse. Over seven hundred species of plants and animals are scattered throughout the forest (Queensland Tropical Forests, 2015). Over time invasive species have slowly made a foothold in the Queensland tropical forest; an invasive species is an animal or plant that is not native to the area, and could possibly cause economic and environmental issues (Invasive Species, 2015). Sadly all of that biodiversity could change because usually
One of the big causes of extinction or the endangerment of species is foreign species entering a habitat. This species that are not native to the land can disrupt the food web in that community. These species take control of the food web and endanger some of the other species. The native species become endangered and over the course of many years they either adapt to their new way or life, the foreign predator leaves or is killed off due to the different environment, or the species is killed off and becomes extinct. Organizations like the “World Wild Li...
Because the CO2 levels are rising, the ice caps are melting and many more animals can become extinct. When pangea started splitting, there was a lot of volcanic activity, which cause the death of many dinosaurs. A meteor also hit earth and the mass extinction of many land and marine animals happened. There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history. The worst one wiped out ninety-six percent of marine life and seventy percent of land organisms. This took millions of years to recover.