Sunday, March 27, 2011

A plague of frogs -- and other invasive species

biodiversity, invasive species, nature

If you're been reading at all about biodiversity loss, you know that there are five main causes to the present crisis, all of which are human-induced: habitat fragmentation, pollution, over-exploitation, introduction of invasive species and climate change. You may know that the dodo didn't go extinct because it was poorly adapted to its environment on the island of Mauritius; it went extinct because it was over-hunted by sailors and because the introduced rats, pigs, dogs and cats ate its eggs, which were laid on the ground.

Here's a list of 10 other species introductions that have gone awry, a reminder that we really don't understand ecosystems very well.

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