A "Colorful" Scourge

AP Article about peacocks taking over Longboat Key in Florida. Click for the environmental message, stay for the references to poop-filled pools and the propensity of peacocks to attack shiny cars.

Fuming

A cutely worded article in The London Times reminds that, yes, even royalty must succumb to the rules of The Galapagos, as Prince Charles and his wife arrive for a tour of South America and are thoroughly fumigated before deplaning, so as to prevent any hitchhiking organisms or pathogens from further contributing to invasive species problems that plague the islands.

Guinea Pig Revolution

As a nice followup to Sunday's post about feral guinea pigs (Cavia spp.) in Hawaii, Andrew B. sends in this article about feral guinea pigs in New Zealand. This time, a Kiwi couple has claimed responsibility for intentionally releasing the cavies into an island park, calling themselves "Freedom Lovers." Luckily, there were only four guinea pigs released, and they have all been recaptured.

SCUBA Dooby Doo!!!!

Great story in the San Juan Islander about a diver who discovered some odd-looking creatures while he was diving off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. The blob-like tunicates that Nick Brown found turned out to be Ciona savignyi, an invasive species previously unknown in those waters. The diver's sharp eye can be credited to the invasive species identification training he received from REEF, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that has been training divers to identify marine organisms and participate in surveys for over a decade. Nick's id skills and photo were enough to get two scientists out to the site, where they discovered and removed several of the tunicates. The site will continue to be monitored for the presence of Ciona for the near future.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past few weeks in invasive species-related posts, from around the blogosphere:

• Paul at The force that through... posts about a Brazilian pepper bush (Schinus terebinthifolius) he found at Disney World.
• A Snail's Eye View has an interesting post about the invasive white snail (Theba pisana) threatening agricultural crops in Australia.
• Speaking of snails (who knew there were so many snail-related blogs?), A Snail's Tale posts about some interspecific competition between cats and rats on an island off the coast of New Zealand.
• Butterflies of Singapore has some excellent photos of a lovely painted lady (Vanessa cardui). While the species has ac osmopolitan distribution (thanks chelydra), BoS questions whether the discovered specimens were bred and released, or perhaps escapees.
• Politician Glyn Davies has a View from Rural Wales, and that view is filled with invasive American grey squirrels.

Mauritius Menagerie

Reuters Africa has a report about invasive species plaguing the island of Mauritius. From an ecological standpoint, Mauritius may be most famous as the home of the famously extinct dodo bird. Now the remaining native fauna of the island, already threatened by established populations of rats and monkeys, are seeing increased predation by new introductions including the giant Malagasy day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis) and the Indian musk shrew (Suncus murinus). Native flora is also being impacted, by herbivores as well as through plant introductions such as the Chinese guava (Psidium cattleianum) and the climbing vine known as hiptage (Hiptage benghalensis).

Galapagosity

If you are curious about the various non-native plants that now call the Galapagos home, this new article over at PLoS one from Guézou et al. will give you all the details. An investigation of the flora of Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island, it includes a list of 261 introduced taxa, from trees and herbs to shrubs and vines. The majority of the species, as would be expected, were introduced for ornamental use. The article's extensive list includes many species known to have invasive tendencies in other parts of the world. It concludes with discussion of a set of nine species recommended for management or further study, including Cuban hemp (Furcraea hexapetala), tropical soda apple (Solanum capsicoides) and prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica).

It is interesting to consider how the location of an urbanized village could be impacting one of the world's most treasured island ecosystems. It is a potential inroad for new invaders, but at the same time is valuable as a place to do early detection surveys that will help identify and catch known invasive species, both cultivated and accidentally introduced, before they spread out of control.

A Mile Wide

Islands Business is reporting that Fiji and Papua New Guinea are about to become home to a fungus that is a promising biological control agent. The rust fungus, Puccinia spegazzinii, has been previously used in other parts of the world to control the invasive mile-a-minute weed (Mikania micrantha, not to be confused with Persicaria perfoliata, the mile-a-minute vine we know too well here in the mainland US). Scientists have been rearing the fungus on in quarantine on Fiji for a while now, and are set to begin releasing it into the wild before the end of the year. Farmers that grow kava (Piper methysticum) as a crop are hoping the fungus brings them some relief, since Mikania is a host for a virus that is known to attack kava as well.

Bonus points to Island Business for using scientific names in their report.

Fun With YouTube

More bizarre invasive species videos from the world of YouTube:

• Kentucky Afield posted a really interesting video about Bow fishing at night for bighead carp. Not for the squeamish, but if you want to see guys shoot an arrow through the head of a 40 pound carp with a bow and a flashlight, check it out!
• The Mississippi Valley Conservancy has a video about invasive plants. The intro is a bit heavy on the cheese, but on the whole, the video is full of good information.
• dancohen posts Alien Invasion, an educational video put together by some Emerson boys for a class project. It's wicked pissah! (No, no, it's not, it's actually pretty bad. Sorry guys. At least you had some decent factoids in there. But if you could get Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon to parody it: comedy gold!) If you cannot get enough of them with AI Part 1, there's always AI Part 2, which is an interpretive dance. [Via That Biology Girl]
• Flkitesurfer caught a lionfish hanging around a shipwreck in the Bahamas. WOuld be a nice diving video, except for the fact that lionfish are native to the Pacific Ocean!
• bluedotprodux posted a video showing feral goats being removed from Santa Cruz Island, in the Galapagos. I have no idea what the guy being interviewed is saying, but I do know that it cannot be fun to be charged with catching and dragging dozens of goats into a truck.

The Devils In The Details

An interesting story, perhaps a bit off-topic, comes to us from BerryBird at the Lake Loop blog. According to this report at Yahoo! News, scientists and wildlife officials have adopted extreme measures in their efforts to save the endangered Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii): they're shipping them to an island off the Australian coast.

Since the 1990s, Tasmanian devils have been ravaged by Devil Facial Tumor Disease, a cancer that threatens to wipe out the entire species, possibly within the next two decades. Now thirty healthy devils are being sent off to Maria Island, currently home to several endangered bird species. Tasmanian devils are considered to be mainly scavengers, but they occasionally do eat live prey, and some environmentalists are concerned about the potential effects this introduction will have on the island's birds. A representative of the Wildlife Conservation Society, an organization helping with the move, says that while there is a slight risk of harming the island ecosystem, the science behind the devil introduction is "very sophisticated." Not sure what that means, but as the also article notes, "scientists can only guess at the impact the introduced carnivores will have on the uninhabited island's ecology."

Are Aussies trading the the life of one endangered species for another?

Off Balance

The Independent recently posted this story about the eradication of feral cats (Felis catus) from Macquarie Island...and it doesn't sound like things are going very well. The cat removal itself worked great: the last time a cat was seen on the subantarctic island was back in 2000. Problem is, there are now over 100,000 rabbits roaming Macquarie, and there have been similar population explosions among the house mice (Mus musculus) and black rats (Rattus rattus) that live there too. The article calls this "unexpected" but I'm not sure how that could be true - it's an island and they killed off the main predator there. Officials are currently scrambling to put together an eradication program and to find funding to control the rats, mice and rabbits before they destroy any more rare bird habitat.

Interested readers may want to check out related ISW posts about similar problems on Robben Island and Gough Island.

Nantucketry

Islands are interesting habitats from an invasive species perspective - little chunks of land to which there are few vectors of introduction. States, provinces, even countries might act like they are islands, but their borders are virtually ignored by nonnative plants and animals.

This is one of the reasons why the Electronic Field Guide to the Invasive Plants of Nantucket is so interesting. On first glance, it reads like a who's who of invasive plant fact sheets. But it is worth a closer look, and not just because I am one of the authors of the project :-).

The 78 plant species currently listed were subject to a risk assessment modeled after the one completed by the state of Massachusetts (.pdf), but focused on Nantucket. One of the most interesting things, to me, is to compare the resulting list to the one compiled for the whole state. For example, there are species listed as invasive by the state of Massachusetts that have never been found on Nantucket Island, like glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus) and lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria). Why are they not on Nantucket? Are conditions inhospitable or are there no vectors of introduction? Certainly special attention needs to be paid to prevent these known invaders from becoming established on the island.

There are also species categorized as invasive on Nantucket that are not considered a problem by the state of Massachusetts, like saltspray rose (Rosa rugosa) and white poplar (Populus alba). Also, we include pitch pine (Pinus rigida - likely a controversial listing since pitch pine is native to Massachusetts but not to Nantucket. Terms like "widespread" and "dense stands" can take on a different meaning when the area being evaluated is an island covering less than 50 square miles.

You can explore the guide on your own using the Search link on the website (left side of the page). Of course, the usual disclaimer must appear here: The plant list compiled for the Electronic Field Guide to the Invasive Plants of Nantucket has no legal status.

Outwit! Outlast! Outgrow!

The Washington Post has an article about the continuing effort to rid the Galapagos Islands of non-native plants and animals. Conservationists are making inroads in their goal of removing all the feral goats, pigs, dogs, cats, donkeys, etc., but the article notes there are new problems caused by the spread of more recently introduced ornamental plants that are now spreading in the wild. Interested readers can check out previous ISW posts about the Galapagos here.

Tilapagos

According to posts on the ALIENS-L listerserver today, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, but the exact species is not yet officially confirmed) have been discovered in a lake on the Galapagos Islands. Hundreds of the freshwater fish were removed from the lake on the island of San Cristobal (perhaps El Junco?), indicating that the introduction was not recent. There are no native freshwater fish species native to the Galapagos, and as far I can tell, stocking of freshwater bodies with fish is not allowed there.

Island Hopping

Dr. Uli Reinhardt writes:

Have you ever wanted to get rid of your stress by destroying invasive weeds ? Have you ever wanted to travel to the Galapagos Islands? Now you can realize both wishes at once. Dr. Uli Reinhardt from Eastern Michigan University and the Charles Darwin Research Station on Galapagos have set up a new conservation research project with Earthwatch Institute. The goal of the project is to save the last large remaining stand of the endemic Scalesia pedunculata forest from such nasty invasives as blackberry, guava, quinine an passion fruit. The weeds are displacing the native plants rapidly and research into their spread and the effectiveness of various control methods is badly needed. The NGO Earthwatch sends volunteers to all corners of the planet to fund and carry out research. Details about the Galapagos project can be found at in the Expedition Briefing (.pdf).

Maybe this is not your idea of a vacation, but it sounds like fun to me. Dr. Reinhardt and his team are out on their third trip right now, with two more expeditions planned for the end of 2005.

Amphibious Assault

Frogs are causing more problems, this time on the Galapagos Islands. According to this report from ABCNews.com, Scinax quinquefasciata, a tiny tree frog from nearby mainland Ecuador, has been breeding in the Galapagos since 1998. The frogs have no natural predators on the islands, and populations are booming as a result.

Islands Effected

At a recent conference in Switzerland, scientists gave several presentations about effects of non-native plant introductions on islands in the Indian Ocean. As reported at Seychelles Nation Online, the islands of Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion and Comoros are dealing with a variety of non-native plant invasions, including Koster's curse (Clidemia hirta) and possibly even an orchid species, Orchid�e Coco (unsure of scientific name).

Finch Pinch

From the Environment News Service (by way of heavy discussion on the ALIENS-L listserver) comes this article about parasites infecting Darwin's finches. The finches, theorized by Darwin to have evolved from a single species on the Galapagos Islands into 13 different species, have been infected with fly parasites, including Philornis downsi. Scientists have yet to confirm that the parasites are causing increasedmortality of the birds.

I smell bacon!!

Hurray for the Galapagos Islands! Declaring one of their largest islands finally free of feral pigs, conservationists can congratulate themselves for winning a hard battle in what will probably be a long war. Feral pigs (Sus scropha) are very destructive, and there are several native species that will benefit from their absence. But there are still other pig-infested islands in the chain, and as the list at the end of the article shows, there are many other invasive plants and animals that must be dealt with.