04-12-2017, 04:11 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Eric1600
I was listening to HPR recently about how the African Snail http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/good-bad/achatina.html was brought here in 1936 and it began eating lots of plants. So naturally they brought in the rosy wolfsnail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglandina_rosea to eat up all the Giant African Snails. It worked great, however, within a year the rosy wolfsnail killed almost all of the o'ahu tree snails https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%CA%BBahu_tree_snail which are endemic and now endangered. It continued to eat it's way through other slugs and snails to the point where almost 1/3rd of all mollusk extinctions can be traced back to the introduction of the rosy wolfsnail.
Introducing a new species to the island's restrictive ecosystem usually results in upsetting several other niche species. There are countless examples here in Hawaii because the introduction usually only takes 1-5 years to dramatically alter the ecosystem.
This is an excellent example, thank you. I guess what I'm trying to ask is "Is it impossible to solve this issue with another species?" Rather than "here is a list of easy fixes, lol!" That slow worm fella for example, he gets wrecked by the common cat, and his only natural defense is shedding his skin to run away. I'd have trouble seeing him causing problems, but he could, he likes to burrow. He could possibly mess up tree roots or other plant roots, or maybe there's some weird bacteria he carries in his scales. Despite the possible problems, it seems reductionist and inhumane towards those who have suffered RLW to not fully consider every option.
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