From pets to pests: cats, rabbits
and now raccoons
Imported species have an alarming tendency to create environmental chaos, as Dan Eatherley explains in
Invasive Aliens: The Plants and Animals from Over There that are Over Here
Dan Eatherley
Collins, pp.320, £16.99
I was shocked some years ago to discover, as I scratched bites on my ankles on holiday on Maui, that mosquitoes are not native to Hawaii. They first arrived in the 1820s, in barrels of water from a visiting ship. Of course, the climate was perfect for them, and they settled in very happily. But we could have had tropical islands free of them — and the risk of diseases they can carry...
It’s been a long time since there was a pet shop at Harrods selling leopards and monkeys, but exotic animals are still around, some of them on the loose. The fad among Victorian aristocrats for stocking their estates with a variety of new creatures was the source of some of the naturalised species that cause problems today, from grey squirrels to muntjac.
It’s been a long time since there was a pet shop at Harrods selling leopards and monkeys, but exotic animals are still around, some of them on the loose. The fad among Victorian aristocrats for stocking their estates with a variety of new creatures was the source of some of the naturalised species that cause problems today, from grey squirrels to muntjac.
There is even a small population of wallabies in the Peak District, but they have not spread far, with cold winters keeping their numbers in check.
Raccoons are also now at large in Britain. Mystifyingly, the requirement for owners to hold a permit was lifted in 2007, and they are apparently gaining popularity as pets. If history has taught us anything, it’s that pets soon form feral populations.
