Invasive Species News

TOULOUSE, France -- Rats exact a punishing toll on island seabird colonies, decimating their numbers as they eat the birds’ eggs and young. Research has shown that fewer birds, and…

TOAMASINA, Madagascar — Last January, when Tropical Cyclone Ava made landfall on Madagascar, wreaking havoc for 24 hours, people here knew they had more than usual to worry about. Ava…

The remote island of South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean has finally been declared free of invasive rats and mice in the world’s largest-ever rodent eradication effort. A monitoring…

A new assessment of UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites found 35 percent with significant conservation concerns, or worse. Most are in the Tropics.

LAKE LIMBOTO, Indonesia — Anton Kui has fished here since he was in fifth grade. He remembers he could quickly catch a day’s worth of fish close to his home.…

On the islands of Wallacea, one of the world’s hottest biodiversity hotspots, a quiet yet deadly invasion is underway. The poisonous Asian common toad’s (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) journey from island to…

Last week thousands of people in northwest Ethiopia marched to Abay River and Lake Tana as part of the “Save Lake Tana” movement to remove invasive water hyacinth by hand.…

Logged tropical forests have a bit of a bad reputation in the conservation community. They’re often seen as sub-standard habitats for animals, especially when compared with the robust and varied…

The slideshow in this story contains an image that some readers may find disturbing. Forbidding black cliffs relentlessly shuddered by massive Southern Ocean waves give way to a mountainous interior,…

A little plant can go a long way — so long it has earned the name “mile-a-minute weed.” This prodigious propagator is Mikania micrantha, a plant that reached Asia from…

Feral cats now inhabit virtually the entire Australian landscape, and have been implicated in multiple recent mammal extinctions by conservationists. Illuminating the urgency of controlling cat populations across the continent,…

A battle is brewing in southeastern U.S. waters, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea: it’s the lionfish against all comers. With voracious appetites and virtually no predators, these…

A new study examines the impacts of invasive feral pigs, a favorite prey of vampire bats, on ecosystems in rural Brazil. The distribution of feral pigs — which are also…

If current trends persist, the population abundance of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish could decline an average of 67 percent by 2020. That’s one of several sobering findings detailed…

cientists have long known that invasive species possess “pesty traits” that benefit their spread. But what if similar, but latent, “pesty traits” could be triggered into action in endangered species…

The remote Caribbean island of Redonda, part of Antigua and Barbuda, is home to numerous species of plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. It is also home to…

Exotic species can wreak havoc on a country’s ecosystem and economy. The extensive damage that invasive species cause to crops and forests in the United States alone, for example, is…

Ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) are the second most abundant trees in Europe. But these commonly-found trees could soon become extinct, a new study warns. Threats from an invasive and “potentially devastating”…

What China’s new five-year plan could mean for global climate change [WRI blog] China has just released their 13th Five Year Plan, which sets new targets surrounding carbon and energy…

Madagascar’s unique wildlife may be in serious trouble. An invasive poisonous toad, called the Asian toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), is rapidly spreading across the island country, threatening the survival of its…

Brian pushes off from the rock wall, surfing along the pool's surface before plunging into its depths. Legs outstretched, Brian seizes a fish and swims quickly under a rock to…

A new study shows that in addition to degrading and destroying habitat that wildlife depend on, logging continues to impact forest inhabitants well after the damage is done by helping…

A coalition of conservationists, recreational fishers and farmers want Australia’s state and federal governments to get rid of European carp, or “Australia’s worst freshwater pest”, from Murray river, according to…

Invasive species are great hitchhikers. They float in the ballast of ships, lurk in luggage, stick to unwashed sports gear, and cling to the soles of hiking boots. Scientists focus…

t's like the plot of a science-fiction film: scientists develop killer robots to take out their targets with lethal injections. Only the targets in this case aren’t government enemies or…

Invasive species are among the greatest threats to the world’s biodiversity, and amphibians rank among the most devastating vertebrate invaders. That’s why the discovery of the Asian toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)…

A lowland jungle stream in Java's Ujung Kulon National Park. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Twenty years after ratifying a legally binding UN convention which obligates parties to deal with invasive…

Fishing gear stands ready next to the day's catch on the shore of Lake Victoria. Photo credit: Isaiah Esipisu. Lake Victoria, Africa's largest fresh water body and the world's second…

Young swift parrots (Lathamus discolour). Photo courtesy of Dejan Stojanovic. In the forests of Tasmania lives the swift parrot (Lathamus discolour), a highly threatened bird that breeds nowhere else in…

Energy has become a contentious and politicized topic, spurring activism, whether it be the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Keystone pipeline protests, or concern over wind turbine harm to birds. But…