Disaster Fear of invasive species is xenophobic, says British environmentalist

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...nts-xenophobic-says-environmental-expert.html

Wanting to keep grey squirrels, American beavers and Japanese knotweed out of the European wildlife is now xenophobic according to British environmentalist.

This raises some rather interesting questions: Is exterminating foreign weeds now another Holocaust?

 

[Daughter of Cernunnos]

It's these people's fault the adorable dormouse is not a common pet like it once was a 100 yrs ago. Invasive squirrels are eating all the food and when the dormouse wakes from hibernation grey squirrels already ate most of the food. Now they are a protected species in Europe when they were once very common.

 

[CWCchange]

If we all went back to our pre-Indo-European migration homeland of West Asia, which is now decimated by brown people, kebab and taco in Europe and America respectively will still destroy the environment and everything into Haiti-tier desolation before any plant or animal ever could.

 

[FierceBrosnan]

How in the fuck does this line of thinking come from the one country that damn near ruled the world a little over a century ago? I get British humor, i love it, but I honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.

 

[thismanlies]

If these are the kinds of biologists coming out of Britain, I’d sure hate to see their engineers.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Did this guy fail Ecology 101 or something?

He never took. Bet he has a degree in Social Science though or something equally reprehensible like English Literature. The Social Justice crowd is gunning hard for the Biologists these days, and their problematic beliefs in things like biological gender, evolutionary adapted social behaviors and scientific inquiry based on logic rather than emotion.

 

[Eekum Bokum]

Every. Fucking. Day. This. Fucking. Country.

 

[QB 290]

Great! We're going back to colonial environmental attitudes! The same attitudes that said, "Australia is British, so it should have British animals," and brought over foxes who, thanks to there being no predator competition in their size category, soon became the master invasive species.

well, there did used to be the Tasmanian Tiger that was fox sized but was killed off by the planets most invasive species, humans:

 

[ASoulMan]

Damn Brown People Gray Squirrels keep taking all our jobs!

 

[Koby_Fish]

Same problem with mute swans in the Chesapeake bay. We have idiots that want to spend money addling their eggs which has never worked. The DNR even recommends to shoot them.

Decades later they are still there, because they are cute from a distance.

Yeah, when it comes to migratory birds such as Swans (and geese), they do the egg addling (attempted abortions) thing because they don't want to shoot them because it'll upset the vegans and PETArds and other assorted touchy-feely hippie riffraff.

British Columbia has a problem with introduced Canada Geese. They refuse to migrate since the winters aren't cold enough for them to bother, so they stay in Southern BC year-round. But since they're migratory birds (technically if not in practice), you can't just haul off and shoot them unless it's hunting season; farmers are allowed to shoot them but are not permitted to harvest the meat (and apparently leaving a dead goose lie for a while scares the flock off for a few days at least). This is the sort of horse shit that festers when well-intentioned regulations to prevent species from going absolutely fucking extinct backfire.

 

[ES 148]

If Britain ever loses the seagull, the badger, or the bird that sounds exactly like a car alarm, I will kill someone.

 

[Sable]

If Britain ever loses the seagull,

Those things are fucking everywhere, I don't think they're at too much risk. I once saw one swoop down and eat an entire hot dog in one bite, flying off with a huge hot-dog shaped bulge in its body, it was awesome.

As for red squirrels, strangely enough they tend to do better in areas with more ground mammals IIRC because the grey bastards are worse at dealing with them.

It's not enough to stop the spread of the grey across europe though unfortunately.

 

[Coldgrip]

My neighborhood needs some falcons/hawks. We have so many gray squirrels that we have albino ones running around. As in multiple white ones. If that’s not a sign of overbred and inbred populations, I don’t know what is.

Are you sure it's albinism and not a white morph? And do you have a lot of light or brightly lit areas around where you live? I ask because the grey squirrels were not as common as they are now back in the old days. Back then black was the most common, due to there being a larger amount of forest, and thereby more dark and shadowy places for them to hide. As people cut down more and more trees though the black and black-brown squirrels didn't blend in as well and became easier prey, while the grey bushy-tailed rodents were more adapted to their environments and thus survived better.

 

[Koby_Fish]

Are you sure it's albinism and not a white morph? And do you have a lot of light or brightly lit areas around where you live? I ask because the grey squirrels were not as common as they are now back in the old days. Back then black was the most common, due to there being a larger amount of forest, and thereby more dark and shadowy places for them to hide. As people cut down more and more trees though the black and black-brown squirrels didn't blend in as well and became easier prey, while the grey bushy-tailed rodents were more adapted to their environments and thus survived better.

Southern BC used to have red squirrels; we saw them in our back yard almost 40 years ago.

Now they're all grey or black. In the early 2000s I saw a black squirrel with a reddish-orange undercoat. Weirdest thing I ever saw.

 

[Chaos Theorist]

If Britain ever loses the seagull, the badger, or the bird that sounds exactly like a car alarm, I will kill someone.

Seagulls are never going extinct as long as people keep throwing their trash on the ground or as long as people keep feeding birds as they bully the pigeons and eat the bread/seeds people give them. Badgers are super common and are a real problem as they spread TB to farm animals.

 

[QB 290]

Those things are fucking everywhere, I don't think they're at too much risk. I once saw one swoop down and eat an entire hot dog in one bite, flying off with a huge hot-dog shaped bulge in its body, it was awesome.

As for red squirrels, strangely enough they tend to do better in areas with more ground mammals IIRC because the grey bastards are worse at dealing with them.

It's not enough to stop the spread of the grey across europe though unfortunately.

Thankfully there's still a good 10,000 - 15,000 red squirrels in Scotland and the lake district due to the locals understanding how endangered they are and damn near kos'ing all of the grey bitches they find.
They won't die out without a fight, if only worthless assholes like the cunt in the article didn't downplay their efforts.

 

[Black Waltz]

Fuck squirrels, all they do is constantly eat the plants in my backyard. They should be shot on sight.

 

[ES 148]

Seagulls are never going extinct as long as people keep throwing their trash on the ground or as long as people keep feeding birds as they bully the pigeons and eat the bread/seeds people give them. Badgers are super common and are a real problem as they spread TB to farm animals.

I know these things, but if anyone finds a way to finally get rid of seagulls I will be disappointed because they are my favourite pest.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

There is absolutely no bottom in the race for human stupidity. I must say though, some invasive species are delicious. I hear Asian carp is great fileted, breaded, and deep fried.

Carp are awful horrible shitfish and they should all die. If you want to talk good eating introduced fish, talk smallmouth bass. They should open up the limits on those too because they kill the native salmon smolts. But they won't because "muh sportfishing".

 

[Duke Nukem]

Carp are awful horrible shitfish and they should all die. If you want to talk good eating introduced fish, talk smallmouth bass. They should open up the limits on those too because they kill the native salmon smolts. But they won't because "muh sportfishing".

There's a ridiculous amount of invasive species out there, many are edible. Egypt has had a problem with crayfish since the 70s and apparently they're not that popular to eat locally. Export, sure though.

 

[CWCchange]

Carp are awful horrible shitfish and they should all die. If you want to talk good eating introduced fish, talk smallmouth bass. They should open up the limits on those too because they kill the native salmon smolts. But they won't because "muh sportfishing".

I've always wanted to eat lionfish, who are invasive bastards that can even kill people, but you seldom see it on menus at restaurants likely because public fear of them being poisonous, even though it's safe after filleting.

There's a ridiculous amount of invasive species out there, many are edible. Egypt has had a problem with crayfish since the 70s and apparently they're not that popular to eat locally. Export, sure though.

The Emperor of Japan accidentally released bluegill given to him by the Mayor of Chicago in the 1960s, and now they're one of the top invasive species in the country. The Japs made some interesting fish dishes from it, but never caught on and there's too many that eating them won't curtail the population.