Discover Wildlife has a feature on 10 invasive species “causing trouble” in the UK. Most are the usual suspects: mink, grey squirrels, signal crayfish, etc. Not all ‘foreign’ species are trouble-makers, of course – which is just as well given how many there are: the consequence of our open borders to much wildlife. It’s important to explain some of the subtleties around terms such as native / non-native / invasive and the article provides the following links:
Read more about the GB non-native species secretariat
It may well be worth looking back to a recent book review we carried of The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will be Nature’s Salvation, in which Fred Pearce argues that trying to keep out alien species looks increasingly flawed and that we should celebrate the dynamism of such species and the novel ecosystems they create. He also says that, in an era of climate change and widespread ecological damage, we should be finding ways to help nature regenerate. Pearce thinks that embracing the ‘new wild’ is our best chance of doing this.
This review also cites a recent article in the Economist, Invasive Species – day of the triffids, and notes a new report from the RSPB, The Nature of Climate Change – Europe’s wildlife at risk.