YORK, Maine — As a morning fog lifted over Maine’s York River, Mike Masi and his two interns stood on a dock sorting through a mound of one of the region’s most despised crabs and hoped to find a few that would end up on a gastronome’s plate somewhere in New England. Invasive green crabs … Read more
On small islands scattered across the Pacific, changes in wildlife can be surprisingly easy to notice. A few more birds along the shoreline, coconut crabs appearing where they had become scarce, or native animals moving through places they once avoided can all point to a shift in the balance of an ecosystem. In Tuvalu, that … Read more
An aggressive campaign using commercial nets and angler bounties helped turn around a decade-long fight against non-native predators in northern Idaho’s largest lake. By 2016, ten years after the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) began its suppression programme on Lake Pend Oreille, the number of adult lake trout had fallen by 64 per … Read more
For decades, a tree from Australia spread across South Florida’s wetlands with little to hold it back. Melaleuca quinquenervia, often called paperbark, had been introduced to Florida for practical reasons, including landscaping and efforts to alter wet ground. It eventually escaped those uses and established dense stands across parts of the Everglades and surrounding wetlands. … Read more
Natalie Muro (William J. Palmer High School Colorado Springs, CO) An 18-year-old student from Colorado Springs has developed a sustainable floating device that uses wind-driven wave energy and a local invasive weed to remove toxic algal blooms from freshwater lakes. Natalie Muro, a senior at William J. Palmer High School, tested her prototype in a … Read more
Around 1745, mimosa arrived in the United States as an ornamental tree, prized for its fragrant pink flowers, delicate foliage and unusual habit of folding its leaves at night. What began as a garden favourite, however, did not stay neatly within gardens. Albizia julibrissin escaped cultivation and gradually established itself along roadsides, clearings, flood plains … Read more
Nonhuman primates (NHPs) can harbour multiple zoonotic pathogens owing to their close phylogenetic relationship and frequent interactions with humans. They can also be extremely successful ecological invaders. Within the United States, fewer than or equal to NHP species have been introduced and of them, the rhesus macaque has successfully established populations in Florida and Puerto … Read more
Over the last two decades, indigenous rangers in Australia’s Tiwi Islands have been working on an eradication and conservation effort that was vital to protect the native lives of the region. Scientists, government actors, NGOs and private enterprise all joined hands to eradicate the invasive tropical fire ant species from Melville Island, as they threatened … Read more
Redonda had become a thriving haven for wildlife within a few years, and now it has received a major new layer of protection. For years, Redonda resembled more a barren moonscape than a tropical Caribbean island. Its vegetation was destroyed, its native wildlife was wiped out, and the marine ecosystem around it was harmed by … Read more
Data from Ulong Island, Koror Republic of Palau shows that seabirds are returning (Representational AP photo) The return of seabirds to a small island in Palau has brought an unexpected benefit. Just one year after invasive rats were removed from Ulong Island, researchers have found that nearby coral reefs are also beginning to recover.The study … Read more