Don't laugh. According to an article in the Dec. 22, 2014 issue of The New Yorker:
New Zealand's Department of Conservation has been using massive amounts of a toxin known as 1080 to try and eradicate the invasive species. ("The key ingredient in 1080, sodium fluoroacetate, interferes with energy production on a cellular level, inflicting what amounts to a heart attack.") New Zealand has roughly one-tenth of one per cent of the world’s land but eighty per cent of the 1080 used worldwide is used in NZ. In 2014 the DOC planned to spray 1080 over nearly two million acres. This was prompted by an unusually warm winter, which produced an exceptionally large supply of beech seed, which in turn had produced an explosion in the number of rats and stoats.
It's a serious problem. The invasive species are destroying New Zealand's native plant life at an alarming rate. Even the iconic Kiwi is threatened with extinction.
I know we have New Zealanders among the members here and I'd like to hear their thoughts and etc about this crisis. Because apparently it is a very real ecological crisis.
Quote:
Rats and other invasive mammals are destroying New Zealand’s native fauna. A quarter of native birds are extinct. The kiwi is threatened. What can be done? “Conservation is all about killing things,” a volunteer coördinator said. |
New Zealand's Department of Conservation has been using massive amounts of a toxin known as 1080 to try and eradicate the invasive species. ("The key ingredient in 1080, sodium fluoroacetate, interferes with energy production on a cellular level, inflicting what amounts to a heart attack.") New Zealand has roughly one-tenth of one per cent of the world’s land but eighty per cent of the 1080 used worldwide is used in NZ. In 2014 the DOC planned to spray 1080 over nearly two million acres. This was prompted by an unusually warm winter, which produced an exceptionally large supply of beech seed, which in turn had produced an explosion in the number of rats and stoats.
It's a serious problem. The invasive species are destroying New Zealand's native plant life at an alarming rate. Even the iconic Kiwi is threatened with extinction.
I know we have New Zealanders among the members here and I'd like to hear their thoughts and etc about this crisis. Because apparently it is a very real ecological crisis.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1ydFSYz
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