From "Abandoning Breeding" to "Private Hunting" —— The whole story of the invasion of green iguana

At this time of the year, the topic of iguanas, an alien invasive species in Taiwan Province Pr

From "Abandoning Breeding" to "Private Hunting" —— The whole story of the invasion of green iguana

At this time of the year, the topic of iguanas, an alien invasive species in Taiwan Province Province, China, will slightly enhance some popularity in the media such as the Internet and news. Most of the discussion is nothing more than thinking about three cups, or caring about the people to kill pests, and so on. Not many people care why green iguanas invade or how to control them. With the invasion of green iguana becoming more and more serious, the relevant systems and laws in Taiwan Province, China are flawed. No matter how experts and scholars appeal, * * * and the people remain the same. In the end, all management strategies are completely different and the results are discounted. Now the problem has gradually changed from complicated to incomprehensible, but no one wants to seriously discuss why ...

First of all, let's define alien species. Alien species refer to species that have no natural distribution in the local area and have been introduced intentionally or unintentionally. Invasive species is a subset of alien species, which means that a species is artificially introduced into an unnatural distribution area, and it has the ability to establish a stable population in the local area without more human intervention, and even threatens the local biodiversity and becomes a local public hazard. In fact, it is not easy to become an invasive species, and it needs to have the right time, place and people at the same time.

The "abandoned" green iguana, which evaded the investigation and shifted the cost, began to be legally imported as early as 200 1. Around 2004, the wild iguana was first discovered in the wild. Although all the sources of green iguanas are interpreted as "abandoned", they have to meet the opposite sex in order to become an invasive species. It is also necessary to overcome the founder effect caused by the low genetic diversity of a few individuals, making it more difficult for their parents and larvae to adapt to the environment and survive to establish a population. Relying on sporadic "abandoning species", it is actually difficult to establish an invasive population. In the early days, it was popular in the market because of its green and pleasing appearance. At that time, it had enough profits and was smuggled in large quantities before it was legally imported.

In the past, when interviewing local residents during the field investigation of green iguanas, many farmers said that some illegal workers dumped a batch of smuggled green iguanas in the big drainage ditch behind the farm to avoid the investigation, which was probably the first batch of green iguanas to establish a stable population. Most of the early wildlife imports only paid attention to whether the species was included in the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species and the protection list of the domestic wildlife protection law, and did not carefully evaluate the invasive nature of the species.

After the invasion of green iguanas was confirmed in 2004, although it was not as popular as in the past, it still had market value, and wild individuals were usually more beautiful than artificial individuals, which led some unscrupulous businessmen to capture wild green iguanas from early invasive areas such as Pingtung and Kaohsiung and sell them to aquariums in other counties and cities, and made a fortune. Wild individuals will inevitably be disabled, scarred and injured in the process of collecting goods. The adults that the aquarium or buyers don't want to buy are also a burden to the sellers, so they simply throw them away on the way back to the big river near the intersection, and there are even many pregnant female lizards. It is no coincidence that a large invasion group of green iguanas began to appear near the interchange in central nanbu county.

The northern invasive lizard Physignathus cocincinus and the southern invasive lizard Chamaeleo calyptratus were also exiled to places suitable for their survival in batches by businessmen who wanted to do unprofitable business, and the feeding cost was passed on to the environment. If buyers place orders, they will supply them through frenzied mining.

Figure 1. Reward for catching male green iguanas in the breeding season near Xiahe River. After green iguanas began to bloom everywhere, people gradually reported that "dinosaurs" and "crocodiles" were in ditches or trees near their homes, and local people began to take some actions, such as sending research plans to universities for monitoring and investigation, or trying to refer to the prevention and control of Anolis sagrei.

Teacher Chen Tianxi from the Institute of Wildlife Conservation of Pingtung University of Science and Technology had a general understanding of the life history of green iguanas in the wild environment in Taiwan Province Province, China, and developed a set of capture methods by investigating the green iguanas that invaded Gaoping area. However, the counties and cities that used the strategy of reward removal and capture failed, and only got some green iguanas' bodies, without other useful information and intelligence.

On October 20, 2008-20 10/0, * * began to evaluate the possible impacts of alien invasive species and the priority order of treatment, and entrusted Professor Liang Shixiong of Kaohsiung Normal University, Professor Hou Pingjun of Taiwan Province Provincial University in China, Professor Du of Taiwan Province Provincial Normal University in China and Professor Xie of Kaohsiung Medical University to jointly implement the project of "Establishment of Data Collection and Management Tools for Alien Invasive Animal Species". The three-year plan mainly investigates exotic animal species sold in pet shops in Taiwan Province Province, China, and establishes a biological background database of each species, giving priority to the possible impact of invasive animals, and making risk assessment and priority management. But I don't know why there are so few reptiles (as shown in table 1), and there are no green iguanas and related grading suggestions in the list.

Table 1. Taxonomic list of invasive reptiles. Table/Reference 1 Up to now, the invasion range of green iguana has expanded from Gaoping area to Jianan area, even to Changhua, Taichung and other places, and all of them are intermittently distributed, indicating that it is very likely that people helped it spread. On August 5th, 20 19, the Agriculture Committee of the Executive Yuan announced the draft of "Terrestrial Wild Animal Species that are not native to China and endanger the ecological environment and human and animal safety", and included green iguanas in the announcement list. After the announcement, the breeding of green iguanas needs to be registered with the competent authorities of municipalities and counties (cities) for future reference, and it is not allowed to be raised without the consent of the competent authorities. It is intended to reduce the circulation of green iguanas in the market in this way, and the registration period is 165438+20201October 30.

The above is a simple process of the invasion of green iguana and the change of coping strategies. Although taking measures to manage the buying, selling and holding of the pet market seems to reduce the demand for people to catch wild green iguanas at will, green iguanas are not only the demand of the pet market. This year, more Youtuber and people who need online voice and click-through rate capture green iguanas privately, exaggerating the delicious meat of green iguanas. Even some legislators have this idea of encouraging the public to "eat green iguanas to kill pests". At first glance, most people will think that there is nothing wrong with this, and they will think that it seems reasonable. They casually joke that the green iguana meat can be removed because of its aphrodisiac effect. However, after all, eating is only a way to dispose of corpses. Capturing in large quantities all the time does not mean that there will be obvious effects in eliminating invasive species, but allowing people to capture green iguanas freely has brought considerable trouble to researchers and cleanup teams.

Why do you hunt inhumanely, destroy the people in the courtship field, and let others catch it casually and cause trouble? We should start with the reproductive characteristics of the invasive population of green iguana in Taiwan Province Province, China. Usually, the mating period is from 10 to March of the following year. In March and April, young lizards begin to lay eggs and hatch one after another in about two months. Judging from the female lizards currently dissected, green iguanas can lay up to 78 eggs at a time. Green iguanas belong to the species of "Lek mating" and have high loyalty to Lek and spawning grounds.

"Showing and breeding in courtship field" means that more than two males of a species gather in the same place to mate with females through various forms of display, display and performance. The most famous example is the tail-root nematode in North America.

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of wormwood grouse courtship field. Green iguanas will go to the courtship field from June 5438+00, and the males will turn orange and stand on the top of the tree to attract females to gather and mate. This period is easy to be noticed by passers-by and captured by ordinary people, so there will be a lot of news about green iguanas from June to the end of the year. The survival rate of green iguana larvae is low, but to reach sexual maturity, there are almost no natural enemies in Taiwan Province Province, China Province. The larger the female iguana, the more eggs it will lay, so the larger female iguana contributes the most to population growth and is listed as the key object. Therefore, whenever the breeding season comes, green iguanas gather in a fixed courtship field and spawning period, which is a very important catching opportunity.

But the problem is that when the general public catches green iguanas during breeding and spawning, they may have doubts that the methods and tools may violate human nature and law. Without setting priority targets for catching and unnecessary excessive interference, green iguanas may give up their fixed courtship and spawning grounds. People often capture large male individuals for display, trading and eating, which looks amazing and bright, and is also the best subject for topics and news. In addition, as long as * * * sees news reports, it will ask the research group to explain, which not only increases the difficulty of operation, but also adds unnecessary workload to the entrusted team.

In addition to hindering the professional team, the reasons why the general public is not suitable for catching green iguanas without authorization include humane treatment, legal equipment, animal movement and so on. All sacrifices must be humane. Most reptiles have strong vitality, even if they are pierced, they may not die in a short time. At present, it is impossible to kill green iguanas humanely with legal long-range shooting weapons in Taiwan Province Province, China. It is obviously not in line with the humane treatment of reptiles to catch guns that violate the regulations on gun and ammunition control and control knives at the initial speed. All humane treatment must be endorsed and certified by veterinarians. The management of animal flow is also an important part. At present, the market circulation of live animals has been managed by * * *. If the corpse has market value after speculation, more people will continue to capture it and interfere with the operation. What's more, green iguanas may be thrown into areas that have not been invaded, so that they can build new groups to catch them, and they have no money to do business, so that green iguanas can't finish their aphrodisiacs no matter how much.

Although the living body has been managed by * * *, there are actually many defects in the management system. First, the registration methods of different competent units can be completely different; Secondly, some only need to attach photos without chips. Almost every green iguana larva looks the same. People have cleaned its territory with photos of green iguana larvae. Although there is a desire to do further processing, it is really not good to do half of personal management. In addition, in the case of insufficient supporting facilities, after the announcement that the green iguana is about to register is released, the executive team often receives the notice of the urban environment, or sees individuals who have obviously been raised in the wild for a long time, which means that many people are too troublesome to give up raising directly.

* * * The difference between administration and eradication is that the Forestry Bureau has the intention to deal with the problem of green iguanas, but it also has the concern of funds, but the executive team is often constrained everywhere. First of all, the article mentioned in the previous paragraph that the best catching time for green iguanas is from June 5438+00 to April of the following year. However, due to the fiscal year, the master plan is unwilling to let the project be implemented across years, or the project funds are stuck in local councils, resulting in no funds in important periods. It is not uncommon for senior managers to get paid, and university teachers to borrow money from schools. After many reflections, there is no improvement at all. In addition, in some areas, the courtship environment of green iguanas is complex and difficult to capture, so it is not allowed to use it to clear the Egyptian saint (Threskiornis aethiopicus). It is necessary to discuss with the River Bureau to clear some plants in the courtship field, and not to always carry out large-scale dredging in important periods to interfere with the courtship field and spawning field, but many suggestions have not been adopted.

Even though we know that there are so many problems with alien invasive species, we also know that alien invasive species need different management methods at different stages (Figure 3), but until now, there is no special law on alien species management in Taiwan Province Province, China, which leads to many problems that cannot be solved and cannot be solved now.

Figure 3. Flow chart of foreign invasion process and management method. The reference 1 was also destroyed by invasive species. In 2008, Japan implemented the Basic Law on Biodiversity, which made the state, local organizations and people have the obligation and responsibility to protect biodiversity. Under the regulation of the Basic Law on Biodiversity, * * * has the obligation to properly implement the Alien Biology Law implemented in 2005. Its main content is to supervise, expel and prevent the organisms that endanger the ecosystem, so as to prevent the harm of exotic organisms to human beings, ecology and industry. In order to prevent the spread of designated alien creatures, in principle, it is forbidden to raise, cultivate, transport, possess, import, sell or release them in the wild, and it is also forbidden to capture, carry or transfer living organisms to unauthorized people. Violation of this law can be punished with imprisonment of not more than three years, individuals can be punished with a fine of not more than 3 million yen and legal persons can be punished with a fine of not more than 1 100 million yen. The law divides alien species into emergency countermeasures, key countermeasures, comprehensive countermeasures, industrial management, anti-invasion, anti-settlement and other categories, and there are different measures and methods according to the categories. Without such legal norms as the Basic Law on Biodiversity, it is easy to make * * * a state of power without responsibility, and there are still many things to be done in Taiwan Province Province, China.

To make matters worse, it's too easy to keep a pet in China, and it's easy to sell or buy. In other words, species are not managed separately according to their invasive and dangerous characteristics and the qualifications of their owners. Before this, there were cases in which junior high school students bought western Crotalus atrox and took photos in their hands.

Article 8 of the Animal Protection Law stipulates that the central competent authority may designate animals that are prohibited from being raised, exported or imported. However, at present, only the American giant water rat family (Myocastoridae), the black piranha (Serrasalmus rhombeus) and the electric eel family (Electrophoridae) are banned. Although wild animals are under the jurisdiction of the Forestry Bureau, when they become pets is a matter for the animal husbandry department, which has been neglected for many years.

For your health, don't eat green iguanas! Having said so much about green iguanas, I believe some people just want to know whether they can eat them or not. Regardless of the influence of people's own efforts on the control of green iguanas, it is not recommended for individuals to eat green iguanas of wild invasive ethnic groups in Taiwan Province Province, China, for the following reasons:

Finally, any invasive species is the same. Eating is just one way to dispose of the body. Only at the right time, in some way, eliminate the body shape and gender that contribute the most to the growth of ethnic groups, always follow the breeding and ethnic trends, and all laws that conform to the humane norms of animal welfare, the regulations on gun and ammunition control and the laws to maintain social order are the scientific and professional treatment of invasive species. Please don't scratch yourself, don't advocate eating green iguanas, and don't make eating green iguanas heroic. Thank you for your cooperation.

Related labels: sustainable development goal 15 | protection and maintenance of ecological field Asian waterspout protection of invasive species alien species pet capture and removal policy abandoned courtship field display breeding green iguana high-crowned chameleon Yahoo Newworm pi radar carnation