CHAPTER XXXVINTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BECOME PESTS
CHAPTER XXXV
INTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BECOME PESTS
The man who successfully transplants or "introduces" into a new habitat any persistent species of living thing, assumes a very grave responsibility. Every introduced species is doubtful gravel until panned out. The enormous losses that have been inflicted upon the world through the perpetuation of follies with wild vertebrates and insects would, if added together, be enough to purchase a principality. The most aggravating feature of these follies in transplantation is that never yet have they been made severely punishable. We are just as careless and easy-going on this point as we were about the government of the Yellowstone Park in the days when Howell and other poachers destroyed our first national bison herd, and when caught red-handed—as Howell was, skinning seven Park bison cows,—could not be punished for it, because there was no penalty prescribed by any law.
To-day, there is a way in which any revengeful person could inflict enormous damage on the entire South, at no cost to himself, involve those states in enormous losses and the expenditure of vast sums of money, yet go absolutely unpunished!
The Gypsy Mothis a case in point. This winged calamity was imported at Maiden, Massachusetts, near Boston, by a French entomologist, Mr. Leopold Trouvelot, in 1868 or '69. History records the fact that the man of science did not purposely set free the pest. He was endeavoring with live specimens to find a moth that would produce a cocoon of commercial value to America; and a sudden gust of wind blew out of his study, through an open window, his living and breeding specimens of the gypsy moth. The moth itself is not bad to look at, but its larvae is a great, overgrown brute, with an appetite like a hog. Immediately Mr. Trouvelot sought to recover his specimens, and when he failed to find them all. like a man of real honor, he notified the State authorities of the accident. Every effort was made to recover all the specimens, but enough escaped to produce progeny that soon became a scourge to the trees of Massachusetts. The method of the big, nasty-looking mottled-brown caterpillar was very simple. It devoured the entire foliage of every tree that grew in its sphere of influence.
The gypsy moth spread with alarming rapidity and persistence. In course of time the state authorities of Massachuestts were forced to begin a relentless war upon it, by poisonous sprays and by fire. It was awful! Up to this date (1912) the New England states and the United States Government service have expended in fighting this pest about $7,680,000!
The spread of this pest has been retarded, but the gypsy moth never will be wholly stamped out. To-day it exists in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire, and it is due to reach New York at an early date. It is steadily spreading in three directions from Boston, its original point of departure, and when it strikes the State of New York, we, too, will begin to pay dearly for the Trouvclot experiment. It is said that General S.C. Lawrence, of Medford, Massachusetts, has spent $75,000 in trying to protect his trees from the ravages of this scourge.
The Rabbit Plague In Australia And New Zealand.—The rabbit curse upon Australia and New Zealand is so well known as to require little comment. In this case the introduction was deliberate. In the days when the sheep industry was most prosperous, a patriotic gentleman conceived the idea that the introduction of the rabbit, and its establishment as a wild animal, would be a good thing. He reasoned that it would furnish a good food supply, that it would furnish sport, and being unable to harm any other creature of flesh and blood it was therefore harmless. Accordingly, three pairs of rabbits were imported and set free.
In a short time, the immense number of rabbits that began to overrun the country furnished food for reflection, as well as for the table. A very simple calculation brought out the startling information that, under perfectly favorable conditions, a single pair of rabbits could in three years' time produce progeny amounting to 13,718,000 individuals. Ever since that time, in discussing the rabbits of Australia it has been necessary to speak in millions.
"The inhabitants of the colony," says Dr. Richard Lydekker, "soon found that the rabbits were a plague, for they devoured the grass, which was needed for the sheep, the bark of trees, and every kind of fruit and vegetable, until the prospects of the colony became a very serious matter, and ruin seemed inevitable. In New South Wales upwards of 15,000,000 rabbits skins have been exported in a single year; while in thirteen years ending with 1889 no less than 39,000,000 were accounted for in Victoria alone.
"To prevent the increase of these rodents, the introduction of weasels, stoats, mongooses, etc., has been tried; but it has been found that those carnivores neglected the rabbits and took to feeding on poultry, and thus became as great a nuisance as the animals they were intended to destroy. The attempt to kill them off by the introduction of an epidemic disease has also failed. In order to protect such portions of the country as are still free from rabbits, fences of wire netting have been erected; one of these fences erected by the Government of Victoria extending for a distance of upwards of one hundred and fifty geographical miles. In New Zealand, where the rabbit has been introduced little more than twenty years, its increase has been so enormous, and the destruction it inflicts so great, that in some districts it has actually been a question whether the colonists should not vacate the country rather than attempt to fight against the plague. The average number of rabbit skins exported from New Zealand is now twelve millions."—(Royal Natural History.)
The Fox Pest In Australia.—And now unfortunate Australia has a new pest, also acquired by importation of an alien species. It is the European fox (Vulpes vulpes). The only redeeming feature about this fresh calamity is found in the fact that the species was not deliberately introduced into Australia for the benefit of the local fauna. Mr. O.W. Rosenhain, of Melbourne, informs me (1912) that about thirty years ago the Hunt Club brought to Australia about twenty foxes, for the promotion of the noble sport of fox hunting. In some untoward manner, the most of those animals escaped. They survived, multiplied, and have provided New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia with a fox pest of the first rank.
The destruction of wild bird life and poultry has become so serious that Australia now is making vigorous efforts to exterminate the pest. The government pays ten shillings bounty on fox scalps, besides which each prime fox skin is worth from four to five dollars. It is hoped that these combined values will eliminate the fox pest.
Regarding foxes in Australia, Mr. W.H.D. Le Souef has this to say in his extremely interesting and valuable book, "Wild Life in Australia," page 146:
"We found that foxes were unfortunately plentiful in this district, and in a hollow log that served to shelter some cubs were noticed the remains of ducks, fowls, rabbits, lambs, bandicoots and snakes; so they evidently vary their fare, snakes even not coming amiss. They also sneak on wild ducks that are nesting by the edge of the water among the rushes and tussocky grass, and catch quail also, especially sitting birds.These animals are, and always will be, a great source of trouble in the thickly timbered country and stony ranges, and will gradually, like the rabbit, extend all over Australia. They are evidently not contented with ground game only, as Mr. A.F. Kelly, of Barwonleigh, in Victoria, states: "When riding past a bull-oak tree about twenty-five feet high, with either a magpie's or crow's nest on top. I noticed the nest looked very bulky, and had something red in it. On going nearer I saw a large fox coiled up in it!"
The Mongoose.—Circumstances alter cases, and a change of environment sometimes works marvelous changes in the character of an animal species. Now,whyshould not the gray Indian mongoose (formerly called the ichneumon,(Herpestes griscus)) destroy poultry in India, as it does elsewhere? There is poultry in plenty to be destroyed, but "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" elects to specialize on the killing of rats, and cobras, and other snakes.
In his own sphere of influence,—India and the orient,—the mongoose is a fairly decent citizen, and he fits into the time-worn economy of that region. As a destroyer of the thrice-anathema domestic rat, he has no equal in the domain of flesh and blood. His temper is so fierce that one "pet" mongoose has been known to kill a full grown male giant bustard, and put a greyhound to flight.
In an evil moment (1872) Mr. W.B. Espeut conceived the idea that it would be a good thing to introduce mongooses to the rats of Barbadoes and Jamaica that were pestering the cane-fields to an annoying extent. It was done. The mongooses attacked the rats, cleaned them out, multiplied, and then looked about for more worlds to conquer. Snakes and lizards were few; but they cheerfully killed and devoured all there were. Then, being continuously hungry, they attacked the wild birds and poultry, indiscriminately, and with their usual vigor. I have been told that in Barbadoes "they cleaned out every living thing that they could catch and kill, and then they attacked the sugar-cane." The last count in the indictment may seem hard to believe; but it is a fact that the Indian mongoose often resorts to fruit and vegetable food.
In Jamaica, at the end of the rat-killing period, the planters joyfully estimated that the labors of Herpestes had saved between £500,000 and £750,000 to the industries of that island. That was before the slaughter of wild birds and poultry began. I am told that up to date the damage done by the mongoose far exceeds the value of the benefit it once conferred, but the total has not been computed.
Up to this date, the mongoose has invaded and become a destructive pest in Barbadoes, Jamaica, Cuba, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Nevis, Fiji and all the larger islands of the Hawaiian group. It would require many pages to contain a full account of each introduction, awakening, reckoning of damages and payment of bounties for destruction that the fiendish mongoose has wrought out wherever it has been introduced. The progress of the pest is everywhere the same,—sweeping destruction of rats, snakes, wild birds, small mammals, and finally poultry and vegetables.
Every country that now is without the mongoose will do well to shut and guard diligently all the doors by which it might be introduced.
Throughout its range in the western hemisphere, the mongoose is a pest; and the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture has done well in securing the enactment of a law peremptorily prohibiting the importation of any animals of that species into the United States or any of its colonies. The fierce temper, indomitable courage and vaulting appetite of the mongoose would make its actual introduction in any of the warm portions of the United States a horrible calamity. In the southern states, and all along the Pacific slope clear up to Seattle, it could live, thrive and multiply; and the slaughter that it could and would inflict upon our wild birds generally, especially all those that nest and live on the ground, saying nothing of the slaughter of poultry, would drive the American people crazy.
Fancy an animal with the murderous ferocity of a mink, the agility of a squirrel, the penetration of a ferret and the cunning of a rat, infesting the thickets and barnyards of this country. The mongoose can live wherever a rat can live, provided it can get a fair amount of animal food. Not for $1,000,000 could any one of the southern or Pacific states afford to have a pair of these little gray fiends imported and set free. If such a calamity ever occurs, all wheels should stop, andevery habitant should turn out and hunt for the animals until they are found and pulverized. No matter if it should require a thousand men and $100,000,find them!If not found, the cost to the state will soon be a million a year, with no ending.
In spite of the vigilance of our custom house officers, every now and then a Hindoo from some foreign vessel sneaks into the country with a pet mongoose (and they do make great pets!) inside his shirt, or in the bottom of a bag of clothing. Of course, whenever the Department of Agriculture discovers any of these surreptitious animals, they are at once confiscated, and either killed or sent to a public zoological park for safe-keeping. In New York, the director of the Zoological Park is so genuinely concerned about the possibility of the escape of a female mongoose that he has issued two standing orders: All live mongooses offered to us shall at once be purchased, and every female animal shall immediately be chloroformed.
IfHerpestes griseusever breaks loose in the United States, the crime shall not justly be chargeable to us.
The English Sparrow.—In the United States, the English sparrow is a national sorrow, almost too great to be endured. It is a bird of plain plumage, low tastes, impudent disposition and persistent fertility. Continually does it crowd out its betters, or pugnaciously drive them away, and except on very rare occasions it eats neither insects nor weed seeds. It has no song, and in habits it is a bird of the street and the gutter. There is not one good reason why it should exist in this country. If it were out of the way, our native insect-eaters of song and beauty could return to our lawns and orchards. The English sparrow is a nuisance and a pest, and if it could be returned to the land of its nativity we would gain much.