The Invasive Animals Destroying the Planet

let's start with the animals that are collapsing ecosystems and slowly work our way towards the once destroying entire continents number eight silver carp silver carp are some of the most destructive invasive fish that can infest any body of water but I must admit it's the only invasive animal on the list that is actually funny we've all seen the videos where the fish launch themselves out of the water smacking people on the side of the head or body now of course they sometimes send people to the hospital with broken bones or concussions but that's just a

small price to pay for comedy silver carp have caused the most destruction here in the US specifically in the Mississippi and its connecting Rivers the carp were first brought from Asia and introduced into the US in the 1970s by companies trying to clean their private Lakes this is because carp are filter feeders and consume algae Plankton or really any small particle suspended in the water but of course the fish ended up escaping during a flood making their way into the Mississippi River where they quickly multiplied into the millions today these rivers are absolutely over run

by these fish since they easily outcompete native animals for food many states are trying everything they can to stop the carbs from spreading from shocking the water to hurting them with enormous Nets they have even created a sport to try and get rid of them and since this is America of course the sport is just shooting them for example in Kentucky the Department of Fish and Wildlife hosts bow fishing tournaments where participants kill as many of the fish as they possibly can with the winner taking home $10,000 but another way people can come together to

help fight this invasive species is by simply eating them yes the fish is very healthy has minimal to no Mercury is packed with vitamins and minerals and great for overall health which is the exact reason Americans don't eat it number seven cane toads invasive can toads are some of the most destructive animals on the entire planet and in many cases have single-handedly collapsed entire ecosystems the toad is native to South in Mainland Central America but thanks to humans they have been introduced to various parts of the world but let's just take a look at Australia

since it's perhaps the place that has been the most devastated in 1935 102 can toads were released into the wild in hopes that they would eat the cane grub a small larvae that was deating sugar cane crops sugar scientists must have just taken a look at their names and figured that the can toad must eat the cane grub since their names were practically a match but as it turns out the K toad eats just about everything from Birds insects reptiles rodents and even dog food but the one thing they don't eat you guessed it are

the cane grubs and just to rub it in the scientist faces they would even prefer to eat trash before the grubs reminding the scientists yet again how much of massive failures they truly are today there are around 200 million can toads in Australia and that number is only growing now let's just take a look at the K toad up close at first glance you might think no not bad solid forearms great traps and decent lats but makes the common mistake of ignoring half its body now it may come as a surprise but those are not

its traps those are actually paraded glands where deadly poison is released in fact this poison has led to a massive decline of quals monitor lizards crocodiles and snakes which are all Native and important to Australia's ecosystem but the good news is that some animals are just now beginning to adapt to the toast poison for example the ruckly had begun to flip toads over avoiding the poison glands then surgically removing and eating the Toad's Hearts now surprisingly can toads eat so much of the Native Wildlife that nothing is left for other cane toads so they have

turn to eating the most abundant source of food each other if you live in Australia and you happen to come across a cane toad it is recommended that you pick them up and place them inside of your fridge for 24 hours followed by placing them in the freezer for a couple of days before finally throwing them in the trash number six rabbits the war with rabbits is perhaps the bloodiest in all of history Australia and New Zealand have been hit the hardest by these destructive pest but today we're just going to take a look at

Australia as I believe it's been hit the worst of the two in 1859 a man named Thomas Austin a wealthy settler imported 24 wild rabbits from England he released the animals on his property so he can later hunt them for sport and eat them but very quickly the rabbits managed to escape and the rabbit population exploded with no natural Predators those 24 rabbits multiplied to over 10 billion this is what that looked like this many rabbits easily collapsed the entire ecosystem of Australia by consuming the majority of the vegetation leaving very little for the native

animals Australians tried their best to hunt as many of the animals as they could but no matter how many they killed it wouldn't come close to making a dent so instead the Australian government turned to biow weapons in the 1950s scientists released a rabbit specific virus called mixoma virus which wiped out a good chunk of the population but eventually the rabbits developed immunity to the virus so again in the 1980s scientists released a new targeted virus this time it would be rabbit hemorrhagic disease which only took 48 hours to kill and would end up eradicating

90% of the rabbit population in many areas but once again the rabbits began to develop immunity to today this game of catchup continues and there are still over 200 million rabbits in Australia happily destroying everything they touch number five rodents why does it always have to be rats probably the most obvious pick on the list and easily the most annoying are rats and mice these disgusting little pests have been following humans around the world for at least 15,000 years but who can blame them after all humans leave behind the best loot now in the majority

of cities and towns rats and mice are just a nuisance but of course in places like New York they're just your roommates one of the places where invasive rats and mice have caused the most destruction is actually on islands for example islands like Hawaii Galapago islands and New Zealand have seen a massive decline in their wildlife and Forest since rats and mice arrived New Zealand alone has lost 40 to 50% of their bird species and many more are currently facing the threat of Extinction this is because rats consume the majority of the native animals foods

like insects seeds and fruits but of course they'll also eat the animals themselves and when animals finally build up the courage to eat the mice or rats for a change it quickly backfires since the odds of them getting sick from a deadly disease skyrockets now even though many animals eat rodents they reproduce at such high rates that it makes it impossible to eradicate them completely number four burmes python the burmes python is one of the largest snakes in the world world only behind the terrifying anaconda and reticulated python native to Southeast Asia the snake would

make its way into Florida in the 1980s and90s thanks to Exotic Animal collectors you see originally these exotic pet owners only saw a snake that only required a baby mouse or two to survive but eventually the snake would grow larger and larger requiring a bigger and more expensive meal like a rat or bird and eventually a Chipotle burrito so realizing that that they are slowly going broke and losing hope that someone would someday say cool snake they come to The Logical conclusion of Simply releasing the snake into the wild making their problem everyone else's today

there are tens of thousands of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades consuming just about anything that moves from birds and mammals to alligators and crocodiles and in some parts of the Everglades animals have decline by over 90% after the snake's arrival today many people in Florida hunt these snakes has a full-time job earning as much as $150 for every 8ot snake they catch the difficult part is that these snakes are some of the best at hide and seek since they love to hide in dense vegetation underground in the water and even in the trees and

in a surprise turn of events when you least expect it these snakes could find and tag you since it's not uncommon for the snakes to work their way through Plumbing Systems and into toilets even though Florida memes are funny we have to give credit where credit is due Florida can hang their alligator skinned hat knowing that they are currently in first place for having the most amount of invasive animals on the planet number three wild pigs this is the only animal on the list that I've encountered firsthand and trust me they are as mean and

disgusting as they look I've had wild pigs threaten to charge at me up close but once it got a good look at my insane physique it of course cowered it out by not chasing me wild pigs are native to EUR Asia and parts of North Africa but were brought over to the US Australia and Europe as a food source but you will never guess what happened next they escaped and in the wild their numbers quickly exploded one interesting thing to note is that it took humans thousands of years to domesticate wild pigs into the smooth

and gentle pink Giants we see on farms today but if that same Pig managed to escape into the wild in a matter of months it would revert back to its original form and look like this which makes me sick just looking at it a wild pig can grow as large as 150 lb and before you say what about Hogzilla he was much larger but that was nothing more than a cheap and disgusting perspective trick that Hunters like to abuse making the animal look much larger of course I only do this when holding a fish after

all how else would I convince my friends that I know what I'm doing now let's talk about why these animals are so destructive for one pigs are omn and opportunistic feeders so they will eat pretty much anything leaving nothing behind for native animals one of the most destructive habits of wild pigs is rooting where they dig into the ground to consume the plant's Roots which destroys the soil and kills native plants preventing them from growing again another terrible habit that pigs have is wallowing where they roll around in the mud next to a water source

contaminating the water with bacteria diseases and parasites which affects the native Wildlife that drink the water now here in America farmers and land owners are sick of these pigs and are fighting back the only way we know how which is by shooting them with high caliber machine guns from helicopters after all there is no other way now I know what you're thinking Lucky them but don't worry you can always pay to experience this for yourself number two the brown tree snake the brown tree snake is a mildly venomous snake native to Australia Indonesia and Papa

New Guinea but during the 1940s the US military accidentally brought the snake to Guam most likely in shipping containers or in cargo today there are around 2 million of these snakes on the island or around 3,000 snakes per square mile making it almost impossible not to run into them here on the island picking up common items like tree branches logs and cords are all a frightening game of roulette the brown tree snake is the only species of snake on the entire Island which hasn't allowed enough time for the native animals to adapt accordingly Le to

seven out of 18 native bird species to become extinct permanently changing Guam's ecosystem but not only are these snakes eating all the native animals on the island they are also constantly causing power outages since they love to climb on Transformers and electrical lines causing them to Short Circuit today us authorities are fighting back by using helicopters to drop thousands of dead mice onto the trees for the snakes to eat the free meal comes with a deadly amount of painkillers which are glued onto the mice causing the snakes to die soon after eating them but only

time will tell if this proves to be an effective way of controlling the snake population before all the native birds and animals are completely wiped out number one feral cats who would have thought that these cute and cuddly animals would be capable of so Much Death and destruction well anyone who lives with one could have told you that yes the deadliest and most destructive invasive animal in the world was right next to us the entire time and in all honesty we should have seen this one coming since all the signs were there to see just

how much of an impact cats can have on an ecosystem or in this case an entire continent we just have to take a look at Australia in the 18th century cats arrived in Australia on ships to help manage the rat and mouse populations but over time cats got sick of being around humans and figured that starting a new life in the Australian Outback was a way better option and in no time the feral cat population exploded today there are anywhere from 2 to 10 million cats in the wild and are directly linked to the extinction

of many Native species and the endangerment of hundreds more and since cats have no natural predators and many options for food that number is only growing it's estimated that 1 million native birds and reptiles are killed every single day by feral cats and well over a billion animals every single year making them the deadliest invasive animal on the planet so in an attempt to lower the feral C population authorities are deploying poison baits in areas with High concentration of cats and in certain areas Hunters are paid to trap and kill the animal being paid $10

per cat scalp now another tactic that is being implemented is simply giving up creating a 27m cat-free Zone by enclosing it with an electric fence to protect native animals essentially providing them with the little Safe Haven inside of a Maximum Security Prison [Music]