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Invasive species

use as ballast to keep the vessel steady on its journey from Asia to Europe also took on the unwanted guests and carried them to new areas to colonise. Elsewhere invasive species have been purposefully introduced by man. In 1859, 24 rabbits were introduced into Australia by Thomas Austin so that he could hunt them for recreation. Unfortunately, like the mitten crab, rabbits are prolific breeders: a single pair of rabbits are able to increase to 184 individual rabbits in just one and a half years and they spread at rate of 130 km per year. Soon the population in Australia was out of control and had spread throughout the continent. Another domestic creature introduced form India into Australia in the 1800s was the dromedary camel. Camels were initially brought to work as pack animals to carry heavy loads across the hot desert interior of Australia. By 1920 it was estimated that around 20,000 camels were being used to transport goods. However, with the arrival of trains and cars, camels were released into the wild where their numbers had increased to around one million by 2008. Finally, the trade in animals as pets can enable as species to colonise areas far away from their native land. Between 2000 and 2006 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recorded 1.5 billion animal shipments mad into America. 92% of these imported animals were then sold as pets, with the rest imported for research, education and zoos. While most of these animals were fish, the imports also included reptiles and mammals. When these pets escape and begin to breed, it can create serious problems. An example of this is in Florida, where in the 1990s a number of pet Burmese pythons- a snake native to south east Asia- escaped their outdoor enclosures when a major hurricane hit the state. Today, it is estimated that up 30,000 snakes inhabit the wetlands of the Florida Everglades. Burmese pythons, which can grow up to 20 feet long, are thriving on their new diet of native species, including endangered creatures, and are more than capable of competing with the American alligator for food.