Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Guys/Gals......aside from POLITICIANS (Sorry had to do that..) what is THE MOST destructive fauna that has been intoduced to North America(U.S.A.) in the last 50 years? Destructive to native species, habitat, waterways etc.. I was pondering it over in my mind, along with reruns from Ren And Stimpy...so I thought I'd share this question with you. Feel free to answer....plenty of room,,,,please no pushing....theres room for everyone! lol

Most Destructive INTRODUCED animal,fish,amphibian,bird,mammal,insect, etc etc

This should be interesting...

sincerely,

Fred Albury

Numro uno: The imported Fire Ant.

This Argentine pest has disrubted the ecology of every place they have been established. Not just for the obvious impact on people but also for its penchant for finding and eating reptile eggs-causing the decline of many species.

Numbre dos: The Feral Hog. Most people do not realize that the only hog native to the US is the Pecary which is found in South Texas.

Feral Hogs eat any small animal they find on the ground (including baby deer) They root up thousands of acres like miniture bulldozers. They also are very aggressive.

The joke here is that they are actually a protected species (strict hunting regs).

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I agree Fire ants are a big problem in the U.S. Alot of ground nesting birds such as the Turkey and Quail are suffering.As well as snake/lizard hatchlings. As far as Feral hogs, here in Texas they are plentiful and there are very liberal hunting regs for them. All one needs is a regular hunting license. There is no limit or season on them. They can also be hunted at night with the aid of artificial light. Where do you live where there are strict regs on Feral Hogs??
Barry

Florida. While we have a hunting season they still are offered protection many native species lack.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Eastern honeybees were already having a hard time dealing with a nasty little virus that was killing them off, but then Varroa destructor (a super nasty honey bee mite) was confirmed to have made its way into the USA in the late 80's. Since then over 80% of the honey bee population has been decimated. People a lot of times get upset that their favorite veggies and fruits and nuts (such as almonds) keep going up in price, but with the high reduction of a very efficent pollinator to polinate the plants, you consequently wind up with much smaller yields. The slack really cannot be made up by other bee species as they are not as effecient or they have specific plants they prefer to feed from.

The funny (ironic ?) thing is Africanized honey bees (another invasive species) would appear to have an easier time dealing with / surviving the mite infestations without assistance from miticide chemicals than the native Eastern honey bees.
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PHWyvern

The next up and coming invasive.... snakehead fish. They are confirmed established in the Potomac River and are now working their way up several of the tributary creeks. Likely to destroy a lot of recreational fishing species such as bass not to mention put a lot of the smaller native species at risk of being wiped out.
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PHWyvern

I don't think they're as bad as the DNR (Dept of Natural Retards) claims. Basically via parallel evolution they are Asia's version of our native Bowfin. Like the Bowfin, their flesh is delicious and they fight on a hook like mad. The one that's loose in the Potomac is probably the Amur River Snakehead and it reaches over a meter in length - that's a lot of meat and a great looking animal to mount on the wall.

Near my house, someone released one of the smaller (18 inches tops) Chinese snakeheads several years ago and we now have a reproducing colony. There are still plently of minnows, gambusia, tadpoles, and small frogs & toads. In fact now that I think about it, there appears to more of them. I just realized as I was typing that what I've seen less of in the past 2 years are the huge shoals of underweight Brim. Most every lake around here is full of oodles of near starving useless fingerling Brim to the exclusion of much else. I believe the term according to the DNR is "lake lock-up". It seems the snakeheads may be serving a purpose after all, thinning out (but not pushing to extinction) the Brim so other things can prosper.

See there is the reason for the panic out of Fish and game. Snakeheads compete with the local perchoids (brim, bass perch...etc) that are "game fish" the government makes money off of. They do not see the gambussio or killies as having value.

Hence the Snakeheads are a threat.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

My guess would be people from Europe(in a historic sense).

Too funny!