What is an invasive species?

An invasive species is an animal that is not originally from a specific ecosystem that has increased in numbers enough to cause harm to the environment.

In order to qualify as invasive species, the animal itself must

• Reproduce quickly
• Grow quickly
• Spread in population aggressively

Invasive species can be harmful to native animals that already live in that ecosystem through many different ways.

• Eating other native animals
• Eating food resources of native animals
• Carrying diseases that can affect other native animals
• Eating or crushing the eggs of native species, making it harder for them to reproduce

Invasive Species can end up in new eco-systems through many different ways

• The Pet Trade (Many Burmese pythons were either lost or intentionally freed into the Florida everglades where they are now an invasive species there and have become a threat to the local alligator population)
• Intentional Introduction (the cane toad was introduced into Australia to stop beetles from eating crops, but now has aggressively spread throughout northern and western Australia)
• Ships (rats stowed away on various ships and ended up on a variety of tropical islands where they quickly spread and multiplied, consuming the islands resources.)