Why home owners shouldn’t panic over knotweed on their property.
Tagged European rabbit kitten infected with myxoma virus, but that died from rabbit haemorrhagic virus disease (RHDV).
Photo by David Peacock, Biosecurity South Australia
Feral rabbits previously exposed to myxoma virus are more likely to be killed by rabbit haemorrhagic diease, meaning that these two biocontrol agents can become even more powerful when used in tandem.
A feral cat snapped by a remote camera in the wild.
NT government
The average Australian feral cat kills 225 reptiles a year, which adds up to 596 million in total, according to a new estimate. Pet cats, meanwhile, kill a further 53 million.
Several giant terrestrial Plathelminth species have invaded France and its overseas territories, threatening biodiversity. Thanks to participatory science, the invasion is finally recognized.
Research suggests there is no “safe number” of brumbies that will avoid harm to mountain ecosystems.
Jimmyvanderwall/Wikimedia Commons
Failing to cull feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park may end up promoting environmental destruction while actually increasing the horses’ suffering.
Gould’s goanna is commonly eaten in Indigenous communities, but can contain high levels of rat poison.
Robert A. Davis
Rat baits are widely used to keep rodent pests at bay. But many Australian reptiles are resistant to the poison, potentially spreading these deadly compounds up the food chain.
New cane toad traps that carefully imitate mating males successfully target breeding females. Males, meanwhile, will turn up for anything that sounds remotely like a toad.
The leaf-feeding beetle Zygogramma bicolorata is one of the most promising agents used against famine weed in South Africa.
Blair Cowie
In richer countries, the socio-economic impact of invasive species can be tackled through technology or adaptive behaviour. But this isn’t the case in poor countries.
Dogs and cats spread their fleas to many other species.
Shutterstock
Bed bugs make us shudder and cringe. So arm yourself with the courage to learn about the biology and successes of Cimex lectularius – as well as the ways to get rid of it.
Life’s not such a beach for Galapagos native species these days.
shacharf/shutterstock
More than 1,500 introduced species have been recorded on the Galapagos Islands, and most have arrived since the archipelago’s tourism industry was expanded in the 1970s.
Wild horses, known as brumbies, in Australia.
Shutterstock.com
From 30,000-year-old cave paintings to The Man From Snowy River, wild horses have always been part of human culture. As Australia debates what to do with ‘brumbies’ in mountain environments, it’s time to reconsider their place.
Japanese vessel washed ashore on Long Beach, Washington being inspected by John Chapman.
Russ Lewis
When jetting off on holiday, we rarely give a second thought to what microbes we might be taking with us. But humans spread trillions of bacteria around the globe, potentially harming ecosystems’ balance.
Invasive pine trees in the Western Cape have affected lizards causing their numbers to drop significantly.
Author supplied
Invasive plants have an impact on native species and unless these factors are properly understood, it is difficult to predict what sort of impact invasive plants will have.