Examples of Invasive Species

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Examples of Invasive Species
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Rabbits Introduced to Australia and New Zealand
have no natural predators
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Tree-of-heaven, Ailanthus altissima

• It grows very quickly, and competes aggressively
  for sunlight in newly developing forests.

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Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria,

• Attempts to dig it out usually backfire because
  purple loosestrife resprouts from root fragments
  disturbing the soil just provides more room for
  it to spread

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Kudzu Pueraria lobata

• Kudzu is a vine that when left uncontrolled will
  eventually grow over almost any fixed object in
  its proximity including other vegetation. Kudzu,
  over a period of several years will kill trees by
  blocking the sunlight

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Asian Tiger MosquitoAedes albopictus

• Arrived accidentally in tires imported from Japan
  
• Can transmit viruses such as Eastern equine
  encephalitis and West Nile virus

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European Gypsy MothLymantria dispar

• imported for silk production in 1869
• Defoliates trees

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Burmese PythonPython molurus bivittatus

• An American alligator and a Burmese python locked
  in a struggle to prevail in Everglades National
  Park.
• This python appears to be losing, but snakes in
  similar situations have apparently escaped
  unharmed, and in other situations pythons have
  eaten alligators. Photo by Lori Oberhofer,
  National Park Service.

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Northern Snakehead Channa argus

• May 2002, a fisher man caught a strange fish in
  Maryland, and handed over a photograph of it to a
  government office in Annapolis. The fish that he
  had caught and re-released in Crofton was soon
  identified as a Northern Snakehead, native to
  China

http//www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Pollution-b
y-Invasive-Species.html
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Zebra Mussels Dreissena polymorpha

• originated in the Balkans, Poland, and areas
  within the former Soviet Union.
• The species was accidentally introduced into the
  Great Lakes in 1988 via the ballast water of
  ships.
• By 1990, it had spread to all the Great Lakes. In
  1991, zebra mussels escaped the Great Lakes Basin
  and found their way into the Illinois River,
  giving them access to the entire Mississippi
  River Basin.
• As of 2002, they had expanded further, and were
  found from Virginia to New York, bringing the
  total number of states with documented
  occurrences to twenty three.

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Wanted Poster
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http//video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/k
ids/animals-pets-kids/reptiles-kids/snake-two-head
ed-kids.html?sourceG2114c