When I pulled in to the parking lot of a local beach park, a flock of mynas was gathered around something on the ground. By time I opened the car door, the mynas were hopping around in a huff because this mongoose had moved in to snatch their spoil.
I suspect the focus of the dispute was rice left over from someone’s lunch, which had been dumped in the lot in the sure and certain knowledge it wouldn’t be there long.
Good point about the darned English people 🙂 Of course it’s not only the English who have been invaders …
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I think it’s a universal thing that when people move, they like to take with them some thing(s) to remind them of their former home.
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Yes indeed. The ideal of pristine nature untouched by humans is pretty weird when one thinks about it.
I came across this article from 1998. ‘Nativism and Nature: Rethinking Biological Invasion’ by Jonah H. Peretti, which discusses this strand in environmental ideology. I thought you might find it interesting too.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30301628?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
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Thanks for the link. It just takes me to an abstract, but I’ll see if I can find the full article.
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Oh that is disappointing, and odd as the link takes me to the full text. Ah well perhaps the abstract will have to do …
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I’ll check it out more to see if I can get the full article. Just haven’t had time these last few days.
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Bloody Mynas. We have a program here to reduce their numbers as they upset the balance with small native birds. Are Mongoose native or a bit of a pest?
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Mongooses are Hawaii’s jewel in the crown of bad ideas. They were deliberately introduced to combat rats, which were damaging sugar cane fields. The mongoose is diurnal, rats nocturnal, so instead the decimated native birds. They’re a huge pest but so established I doubt we’ll ever get rid of them.
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Well OUR great minds bought Cane Toads from Brazil to combat the Cane Beetle. That was easy but they didn’t realise that toads have a round 1000 eggs a year. They have come south about 4000 kms since the great plan was put into action. Now our river is the last holding point from having them march any further. Are feral cats a problem?
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Cane toads are another winner here too. As for feral cats, they’re everywhere. There is a spay/neuter program for them, but it doesn’t seem to reduce the numbers significantly. A big problem with feral cats, even if they have been fixed, is that their feces can carry a parasitic disease, Toxoplasmosis, that is fatal to the very endangered Hawaiian monk seal.
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Yep much the same. The English. wanting to feel at home also bought rabbits and foxes….sheesh. Not to mention the garden plants that do so well when they are in the bush. My main weed is Lantana
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We have that here too. Those darned English people – oh wait, that’s me!
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😀 😀
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