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September 02 2011
Sneaky Toad Tadpoles Use Chemical Weapons Against Their Growing Competition
Think you’re a survivor? You’ve got nothing on the cane toad, former native of Central and South America, now scourge of Australia. To snuff out their competition for resources, cane toad tadpoles will actually cannibalize nearby cane toad eggs. And all those eggs the tadpoles are too full to gobble up? Well, researchers recently learned that the hardy amphibians have that covered, too: cane toad tadpoles release chemicals into the water that stunt the growth of developing embryos.
Scientists already knew that cane toads communicate with pheromones and use these chemical signals to locate tasty eggs. They also wondered if the pheromones have another, more insidious, purpose. Biologists at the University of Sydney set up a simple experiment to find out. They placed cane toad eggs in 20 containers filled partially with water; in 10 of those containers, they added tadpoles and separated them from the eggs with mesh screens.
The result: five days after hatching, the amphibians that developed with drooling tadpoles next door were 24 percent shorter and weighed 41 percent less than the isolated groups. Moreover, 40 percent fewer exposed tadpoles survived beyond 20 days, ...
May 18 2011
Voracious Feral Camels Are the New Cane Toads (Which Are the New Rabbits…)
Report yer feral camels here.
In another edition of “invasive species are a bad idea,” Australia is suffering a plague of feral camels (on top of the rabbit brouhaha, the cane toad fracas, and the red fox situation). Imported by those clever British settlers to work in the desert in the late 19th century, these dromedaries were released into the wild when trains and machinery took over the work. Now, there are more than a million kicking around the outback, and they are coming to eat your air conditioner. And your toilet. And anything else that might have water in it.
Camels can chug more than 50 gallons of water in three minutes, and when drought hits, they can go on a rampage, destroying plumbing systems and rushing to water holes in such a crush that some are trampled. Their rotting carcasses then foul the water that Aboriginal communities depend on. Camels cause more than that 10 million Australian dollars-worth of damage a year, and they’re next to impossible to stop, says a scientist who studies them (in an Australian accent, which makes it even more menacing): “These are very strong animals…If ...
April 22 2011
Branson Plans to Make Lemur Paradise; Scientists Say, “It’s Pretty Weird”
Branson’s plan to save lemurs is turning heads.
If you build Madagascar’s lemurs a new home, will they come? And can you trust them not to trash the place?
Sir Richard Branson, private moon shot funder, Virgin Group kingpin, kooky billionaire du jour, has been turning heads with his announcement that he plans to import 30 ring-tailed lemurs from zoos to one of his privately owned islands in the British Virgin Islands. The idea is to give endangered or threatened species a new place to live and breed—Madagascar’s civil war has meant a resurgence in lemur habitat loss, and ring-taileds are listed as “near threatened”—but biologists and conservationists are pointing out how Branson could be doing the island’s native ecosystem a serious disservice. “It’s pretty weird,” Simon Stuart, chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission, told the BBC. “What else lives on the island, and how might they be affected?”
On the one hand, it’s rather charming that Branson has such a hands-on approach to problems of conservation (he’s also founded the Virgin Green Fund to tackle next-generation fuel development), which are often depressingly intractable. But the ...
January 04 2011
What to Do With Troublesome Invasive Species: 1) Eat Them, 2) Wear Them
Sick of invasive snakes eating through your wiring and biting your babies? Don’t have any tylenol-doped mice to lob at them? You might be in luck, we have a few ideas of what to invasive species that insist on making pests of themselves.
Idea #1: Make Them Into Dinner
Become a part of the “invasivore” movement by ingesting some tasty lionfish (pictured) or asian carp, and by nomming on some kudzu or Japanese knotweed. One “almost serious” invasivore, Rachel Kesel, blogged on the subject and talked to The New York Times:
She said in an interview that she was studying in London when she wrote the post, which grew out of conversations about diet and ecology. “If you really want to get down on conservation you should eat weeds,” she decided. And so she blogged. She now works for the parks department of San Francisco and said she did indeed pursue the vegetable side of the diet she proposed. “I’m really looking forward to some of our spring weeds here,” she said, notably Brassica rapa, also known as ...
July 09 2010
Vicious Hogweed Plant Could Star in “Little Shop of Horrors” Sequel
It blinds; it burns; it looks kind of pretty. An invasive, poisonous plant known as giant hogweed, or Heracleum mantegazzianum, is attacking western Ontario.
The plant is a member of the carrot or parsley family, and as described in a brochure (pdf) from the Michigan Department of Agriculture, 20th century gardeners cultivated the giant for its impressive size and for its stem’s purple coloring. But it soon broke out of gardens and arboretums, its seeds finding soil outside of captivity.
Besides Canada, the plant has also appeared in the northern United States (both east and west) and as far south as Maryland. Ontario officials are concerned with the plants’ continuing spread–it was most recently sighted in Renfrew County–and have urged anyone who spots it to contact them immediately.
Giant Hogweed can grow to almost twenty feet tall and five feet wide, and each plant can produce around 500,000 seeds. Sap on your skin can give you ugly blisters, the CBC reports, and sap in your eyes could cause blindness.
Jeff Muzzi, manager of forestry services for Renfrew County, told the CBC that, despite its heft, the weed is a stealthy attacker.
“[Exposure] could be inadvertent,” Muzzi said. “You might not even know it’s here, [just] walk into it and happen to break a leaf. The next thing you know, you’ve got these nasty burns.”
Renfrew County officials are attempting to thwart the toxic plant’s leafy grip by distributing pamphlet warnings and, as the CBC reports, through “weed-whacking campaigns.”
Related content:
Discoblog: The Iron Curtain Kept Invasive Species Out of Eastern Europe
Discoblog: For Guilt-Free Fur, Wear a Coat Made From an Invasive Water Rat
Discoblog: Does Fighting Forest Fires Help Invasive Species?
Discoblog: Crocs Chow Down on Invasive Toads, Instantly Regret It
DISCOVER: Humans vs Animals: Our Fiercest Battles With Invasive Species (gallery)
Images: Wikimedia, Michigan Department of Agriculture
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