Invasive Species in Galapagos Nicholas Blair

What is an invasive specie? An invasive specie is a specie that has gotten to a certain place and mostly is not wanted by the owners or even the animals and plants living there. It is a specie that has not started from the beginning in one place and has been brought through out the years either by man kind or nature. Most of the times, invasive species are a huge problem because it can damage and cause the death of many species that were living there before.

Table Name of speciesHow introducedImpactControl Feral CatsIn Boats, Humans.Minly just eats eggs of the animals and lizards. They shoot/hunt cats from the islands. Mora/ BlackberryHumans, to increase agriculture. Kills the native plants by occupying all the space and water. By putting bugs to kill it. CowsIn Boats, Humans.They eat all the grass that is available for all the animals. Humans sell and eat their meat. GoatsIn Boats, Humans.By eating native, plants in danger of extingtion. By doing goat hunting contests.

Galapagos Galapagos consist of 19 eruption-made islands. They are 1,000km away from Ecuador. The most famous resident of the Galapagos islands was Lonesome George, who was the only surviving giant Pinta Island tortoise left on Earth The most famous of the endemic Galapagos creatures are the tortoises that the islands were named after Galapagos Helped Charles Darwin to prove his evolution theory during his trip.

Invasive species in Galapagos There are many invasive species in the Galapagos Islands, but the top four are the Feral Cats, Wild Blackberries, Cows and Goats. All of these species are the ones that eat and consume the most amount and don’t leave any for the other species.

Goats The Goat is a very interesting example of an invasive specie because it is one that goes in all the specifications of being invasive. The goats eat all the endemic plants and some that are in danger of extinction and this is causing the extinction of many species.

How it got there The goat got to the Galapagos because the first boats that came to south America, had a stop at Galapagos first and there they would refill with food and animals. They used to leave some goats in the islands to mate, and then they would come back and find many more goats they could take with them on their journey. By doing this, the population of goats went rapidly growing.

How they are trying to solve the issue One of the Biggest islands Isabella, freed itself from goats by Eradication. The largest hunt was in December 2001 to June 2004, a total of 37,350 hours were worked in 60 fields were all the feral donkeys and 90% of the goats were killed. There were two helicopters which helped with aerial hunting.

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