I stumbled over this story of snapping turtles being an invasive species in Japan. I am familiar with many species of plants and animals being invasive to N. America but know little about N. A. species invading other continents.
Raccoons. Crawdads/crawfish/crayfish, who bring disease to native minilobsters, several fish species such as rainbow trout, though they’re native to Asia too.
And bullfrogs (chazwozzers)
The Colorado Potato Beetle is invasive in Europe and Asia.
Where are bullfrogs invading? I know within the US they are invasive in the west, west of the Rockies. Are they in other countries?
There’s a couple more here. Mink are one I was thinking of but I didn’t know their effect had been so extreme. A lot of them in the wild were released by supposed animal rights activists.
Lots o’ places. East Asia, Europe and Eastern South America in particular. With often unhappy results for native amphibians.
The Red-eared slider is making a similar impact on turtles, likewise to a lesser extent the Rosy Wolfsnail( a “fast” snail-eating snail )for snails.
From Wikipedia
“Other countries into which the bullfrog has been introduced include Mexico, the western half of Canada, Cuba, Jamaica, Italy, the Netherlands, and France.[14] It is also found in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia, China, South Korea[15] and Japan.[16] The reasons for introducing the bullfrog to these countries have included their intentional release, either to provide a source of food or as biological control agents, the escape of frogs from breeding establishments, and the escape or release of frogs kept as pets.[14] Conservationists are concerned the bullfrog is relatively immune to the fungal infection chytridiomycosis and as it invades new territories, it may assist the spread of this lethal disease to more susceptible native species of frog.[17][16]”
Beavers in southern South America are a problem
How about rabbits in Australia?
According to this European rabbits were introduced to Australia.
The phylloxera, native to North America, spread to Europe and basically destroyed all grape vines in Europe. The wine industry barely survived by importing American plants resistant to it, and grafting the grape vines onto them.
The largemouth bass was introduced to many other countries for sport fishing, and became invasive.
Is having a negative impact required for a species to be considered “invasive”?
If not I submit the tomato and the potato as huge ones of major impact, intentional and desirable as their invasions and domestications were.
The “not” position certainly has its defense.
From that article comes this interesting concept and example for the op:
I don’t think so, but I think it would have to be propagating in the wild (not cultivated) to be considered “invasive.”
Not sure.
We are as much a part of the ecosystem as anything else. Domesticated plants are to some degree a form of mutualism, and the bigger beneficiaries of those relationships from the perspective of the “selfish gene” are the plants who have by way of providing relatively nominal benefit to humans now spread farther and wider than they ever otherwise would have.
I assumed not as intentional stocking of game fish, mammals, and birds is done. But yeah, they also need to be semiwild.
Yes. By definition, invasive species are detrimental.
Crops are not invasive unless they spread on their own without human assistance. Tomatoes and potatoes are not invasive.
Mink, introduced in the 1920’s, is a serious threat to native bird species here in Finland. Muskrat, also introduced in the 20’s, became extremely common by finding an empty ecological niche, but their population has recently crashed due to unknown reasons. Whitetail deer, introduced in the 1930’s, has boomed in Finland as well, becoming the second most important game animal per meat yield. Curiously, the whitetails have also found a niche without disrupting native wildlife.
On the plant side, a lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) and a serviceberry (Amelanchier spicata) have gotten out of hand and are crowding out native species at a fast clip.
Forgot to add the North American beaver, introduced in - who’d guess - the 1930’s, and becoming the dominant beaver species, over the once-extinct native Eurasian beaver.
Interesting. In the areas where the two smaller North American species coexist, primarily in the Rocky Mountain area, white tails are frequently accused of pushing out mule deer. They must not compete as much with Finnish species (moose and ??? Fallow deer and reindeer?)