Thursday, June 11, 2009

The aliens have landed

Invasive alien species are affecting native wildlife in almost every corner of the Earth. “An unwanted by-product of globalization, non-native species are harming ecosystem services, livelihoods and economies throughout the world”, said Ban Ki-moon - United Nations Secretary-General.

Invasive alien species are plants, animals and other organisms that are not native to an ecosystem. Introduced species - such as rats and cats - are one of the greatest drivers of biodiversity loss, and have been implicated in almost half of all bird extinctions in the past five centuries.

To increase understanding and raise awareness of biodiversity issues, the United Nations declared today - 22 May - the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). This year’s theme is drawing attention to the threats posed to biodiversity by invasive alien species.

2 comments:

rking8 said...

the Texas legislature has once again refused to classify the millions of feral cats roaming Texas, as invasive species. We ahve around 10 feral colonies in in austin alone. Saaves the misguied folks a ot of litter and they can leave town ay time they want. Don't even have to arrange care for the pets they leave to the vagaries of outdoor life. LKae Jackson, home of many of the bird activities on the upper coast, has for decades has allowed cats to roam free by law. I am forming a new organization to fight the 180K paying members of Alley Cat Allies who arranged for cats to be kept of teh invasive species list. Had the free roaming common cat, the most successful predator in the world, been pu ton the lis tit wou ld have been under the lovign care fo TP&W. They already shoot them on site at the refuges so you can imagine what their solution to the 2nd leading cause of all new avian extinctions will be when the cats do make the list. You cna write Dennis Bonnen. He is very interstedin this issue and wants to help birds be protected since he represents Brazoria county. The county with the most bird species in North America, home of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, numerous refuges and sanctuaries, adn Lake Jackson Texas- a town teh allow scats to roam free by law.

Bird Advocate said...

Those 180,000 paying members of Alley Cat Allies need to learn the wild fauna of the United States are more precious to the majority of us than the 100 million feral and roaming pets they enable to kill them!