the exotic pet trade makes for greatinstagramming. but people with weird pets are seriously messing up the environmentand costing us millions of dollars in the process. hello, everyone, i'm trace (as you may know)and today we have a special guest from shed science, sally le page. hi, sally. hello, thanks for having me.welcome. every year pet owners are
cheap pet snakes for sale, faced with the dilemma of what to dowith unwanted companions. in boulder, colorado, a handful of goldfish werereleased into a local lake and now there are thousands of them. goldfish are actually carp, like thewell-known coy carp. they're native to
japan so they've got no natural predators herein the us. they could be carrying viruses and if they escape lakes and headdownstream they could out-compete native fish, some of which are alreadythreatened. you may think of him as cute little mr bubbles. what harm could he possibly do? but removingthese species costs the government a lot of money and time, and it's not just ourgoldfish. in 1890, a fan of william shakespeare named eugene shefflin wantedto bring the birds from shakespeare's works into his home of new york. hereleased a hundred starlings that are
native to europe, asia, africa, andaustralia into central park. and by 1928, those 100 beds had bred so much thatthe population reached the mississippi river. by 1942, they had spread all theway to california, forming flocks of as many as a million hungry birds drivingoff native species like bluebirds and woodpeckers. and today there are anestimated 200 million starlings flying around north america, costing eighthundred million dollars in damage to agriculture every year and unknownmillions in damage to the airline industry through bird strikes. they evencaused a plane crash in 1960. it's not just the waterways and skiesharboring introduced species.
oh, no, no, no. there are two states whichbear the brunt of these animals: florida and hawaii. in a 20-year floridastudy, they found 56 different non-native species completely established inamerica's favorite little dangly state. pythons are a well-known invader but what about the newest reptilianinvader: the argentine tegu? this black-and-white lizard is just startingto breed and spread into parts of the state. how did it get there? exotic pet release.their study found eighty-four percent of all introduced species in florida camefrom exotic pets.
tegus grow up to four feet in length andlay 35 eggs a year. once established, they'll compete with feral cats and dogs, as wellas native animals like raccoons. florida is also home to wild hogs. notthat better-than-expected john travolta movie. no. literally, wild pigs. yeah. the hogs were introduced in the 1500's bythe spanish. but europeans have their invaders, too, like the red-eared slider orterrapin. it's from the mississippi valley butit's been found as far away as europe and asia. the red-eared slider females arelarger than most native turtles, so they can out-eat, out-mate, and out-breed. andapparently most male native turtles like
the larger ladies. and indeed who wouldn't? you see, bigger females makemore eggs, so of course they're more attractive to the males. as years go by,more and more non-native species get spread around, even trees. the norwaymaple, a beautiful tree, grows so fast and has such dense shade it displaces nativetrees, shrubs, and herbs, as well as flowers, which affects the native forestlife. and trees are essential for some species of forest life, and the norwaymaple out-competes native maples for resources, causing the native treepopulations to die and affecting the animals that live in and around them.
just don't plant them. but if you aren'tinto cutting down beautiful maple trees, even if they are invasive, you could helpby getting an environmentally friendly car. the new toyota mirai is looking to thefuture with sustainability in mind, fueled by hydrogen and leavingzero-emissions behind. now that california and other southwestern regions arebeginning to react to this massive drought, chances are we'll see morenative plants and landscaping that require less water and are more suitedto our habitat. that's probably good. there are solutions to the drought, butdesalination isn't going to do it.
for more on that, check out julian'svideo here. "it can only make ten percent of the county's needs and it'll use alot of energy because it's forcing pressurized water through a membrane toseparate the water from the salt in a process called reverse osmosis." and thankyou for watching.
also, you can come find sally ... where can they come find you? they can come find me on youtube.com forward slash shedscience thanks for coming. thanks! bye.
