本帖最后由 jblwk 于 2022-3-10 11:14 编辑
OK, hands up who loves hedgehogs. Cute little spiny animals. Lots of people keep hedgehogs as pets. The same was true almost two centuries ago. Hedgehogs were brought over from Britain to New Zealand. Thus, European hedgehogs are considered invasive species in the new environment.
What is an invasive species? Let me give you an example. We are all familiar with Disney animations. It is just like Cinderella appearing in Peter Pan’s Neverland. She’s so mysterious that even Captain Hook doesn’t know who she is and what to do with her. This allows Cinderella to do whatever she wants. Sometimes, this happens in the natural world, and such animals are called invasive species.
Due to the lack of natural predators in New Zealand, invasive hedgehogs eat whatever they want. Thus, lizards, insects, and birds’ eggs become their snacks.
Since there are so many of these gobblers, the number of native animals has dropped drastically︎. It is time to act and reduce ︎the number of settlers in New Zealand. New Zealand is currently attempting to remove all introduced predators from the ecosystem by 2050 – to allow native wildlife to flourish.
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