Which Animal Is Not Indigenous To North America?

Wild fauna

Vii US Species Invading Other Countries

a racoon — When cuteness leads to an invasive species problem. Photo © Jim Whiteley /Flickr

Much ado is made well-nigh invasive species — and with good reason. Without local predators or disease, species from other countries tin can wreak havoc on ecosystems here in the United States. (Call back lionfish in the Caribbean area, pythons in the Everglades, Asian carp in the Mississippi, etc.)

But what about invasive species from the US? Unfortunately, several of our amazing native flora and creature have been unintentionally (or intentionally) exported elsewhere in the world, with similar catastrophic consequences.

Here, we list seven American species causing ecological mayhem abroad.

Racoons Run Rampant in Europe & Japan

Europe & Nihon

Peekaboo! Racoons are an invasive species in Nippon and Europe. Photograph © Kevin Chodzinski /Flickr

Unfortunately, our loveable little masked bandits are, well, too lovable.

Thanks to purposeful introductions, raccoons are an invasive species in Europe and Nihon. Frg has the largest population in Europe — numbering more than than 1 million in 2012 — and they've spread to all of its neighboring countries . (Some of the first German raccoons escaped when an airstrike hit a fur farm during World War Ii.)

Other populations occur in Madrid, the Lombardy region of Italian republic, and northwestern France, where pets were released about a Us Air Force base of operations. More than 1,000 raccoons were introduced in parts of the quondam Soviet Union in the hopes of starting a fur industry, and now two remnant populations exist in Azerbaijan and south of Belarus.

In Nippon, the popular 1970s cartoon series Rascal the Raccoon resulted in more than than ane,500 raccoons being imported as pets . Well, we know how that goes. The pet raccoons were but a little too rascally for their owners, who — like the book's principal grapheme — released their pets back into the wild.

Invasive raccoons cause the usual garbage-stealing mayhem, just they as well carry rabies and other diseases. In Japan, scientists estimate that raccoons crusade an estimated $300,000 USD worth of damage to agricultural crops every year on just 1 small offshore isle. And in at least ane location they even damage historic temples with their claws and abundant poo.

Rascals indeed.
Largemouth Bass Gobble Everything In Their Path

North America, South America, Europe, Asia, & Africa

Open up wide! A largemouth bass. Photo © Wil / Flickr

Equally American anglers know, the largemouth bass is quite a fish — it'due south big, tasty, and puts up a great fight.

Unfortunately, those same qualities made it a popular candidate for deliberate introduction exterior of the United states. Bass at present swim through the waterways of southern Africa, Europe, New Zealand, Japan, People's republic of china, Canada, and the Americas.

Bass are carnivorous, gobbling up other fish, invertebrates, amphibians, insects, and even birds or mammals that autumn into the water. Invasive bass are responsible for the extinction of Guatemala'southward Atitlan Grebe , every bit well every bit the decline or extinction of several smaller native fish and amphibian species throughout the world.
Cherry-eared Sliders Go From Pets to Pests

North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific Islands, & the Middle East

Ruby-red-eared sliders sunning on a log. Photo © Eric Kilby / Wikimedia Commons

If you lot alive in the southern US, y'all've probably heard the distinctive "plonk!" of a sunning turtle sliding beneath the surface. And in that location's a good take chances that i or more of those turtles was a red-eared slider , named for the distinctive cherry stripe along their caput.

But what you might not have realized is that the red-eared slider ranks amidst the 100 worst invasive species in the globe . The species is the almost popular turtle in the global pet trade, with more than than 52 meg individuals exported from the United States betwixt 1989 and 1997, according to the IUCN.

Cherry-red-eared sliders tin can grow quite big and live for 40 years, so many pet owners tire of their turtles and set them free in the nearest waterway. Sliders are now established in the western U.s.a., Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Great United kingdom, South Africa, the Caribbean, the Heart East, Southeast Asia, and several Pacific Islands. (If you're counting, that'due south every continent except Antarctica.)

While some nations accept banned importing or fifty-fifty owning a pet cherry-red-eared slider, the species is yet sold on the illegal wildlife market place.

Like many other invasives, sliders often out-compete native species for nutrient, basking sites, and nesting sites. Red-eared sliders tend to mature faster and produce more offspring than native turtles, helping their populations boom.
Mink on the Move in Patagonia & Europe

Chile, Argentia, & Europe

An American mink. Photo © Ryzhkov Sergey / Wikimedia Commons

Many Americans have never seen a mink — unless you lot count Grandma's fetid former fur coat tucked away in the hall cupboard. Related to weasels, these ambrosial little mustelids live in the rivers and lakes of Northward America.

Simply thanks to the fur industry, they're also running rampant in Europe and South America. Mink were deliberately introduced to Chile and Argentina in 1930 for commercial fur production. They now pose a serious threat to native birds, like the critically endangered Hooded Grebe . Mink are carnivorous, and a single animal tin hands wipe out an unabridged grebe breeding colony.

The state of affairs in Europe is similar, with mink imported from 1920 to the 1950s for fur production. Self-sustaining populations now live on the Iberian peninsula, Norway, the United Kingdom, eastern Europe, and Iceland. American mink pose a serious threat to native species like the European mink and Pyrenean desman , an aquatic mammal related to moles and shrews.
American Bullfrogs Hop Through Four Continents

North America, South America, Europe, & Asia

A bullfrog (rana catesbeiana) pond in a vernal puddle at Dye Creek Preserve, California. Photo © Ian Shive / TNC

Y'all might accept heard of the now-infamous cane toads invading Australia . Only they're not the only large, menacing amphibian hopping through foreign countries.

The American bullfrog , native to the eastern US, is an invasive species in twoscore+ countries around the world, including parts of South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Communist china, South Korea, and Nihon. They're as well an invasive species inside North America itself, with introduced populations in the western U.s.a., Canada, and Mexico.

These populations arose from a combination of intentional release (as a food source or biological control agent), escapees from convenance facilities, or wayward pets.

Wherever they become, bullfrogs are both eating and outcompeting native amphibians. Like other invasive species, they are aided by a combination of few predators and prolific breeding rates. One female bullfrog tin lay equally many as 20,000 eggs at a time, and their tadpoles are less palatable to predators than those of native species.

Recollect it can't get whatever worse? Just wait: Enquiry besides suggests that American bullfrogs are carriers of the mortiferous chytrid fungus, though they themselves are immune to the disease. So not only do they gobble upward both native frogs and their food sources, they carry a deadly disease also.
Squirrels Go From Garden Accessories to Invasive Species

Canada, Europe, South America, & (formerly) Australia

An eastern greyness squirrel in Massachusetts. Photo © Cheryl Rose

That'due south correct — those cute petty squirrels gamboling about your yard are an invasive species.

It all started in 1876, when a Victorian banker returned from a visit to American with two eastern grey squirrels and decided to release them into his garden. Unfortunately, this started a new trend for exotic squirrels as garden accessories , and others followed suit. The species was afterward introduced to continental Europe (both accidentally and deliberately) several times throughout the 1900s.

Unfortunately, the American invaders are threatening native red squirrels by competing with them for nutrient and habitat. Grey squirrels also spread the mortiferous squirrelpox virus, which causes lesions on the face, anxiety, and genitals. While greyness squirrels frequently survive the disease, their European counterparts usually dice within a week. And as more ruby squirrels die from disease, more habitat and food is available for the invaders.

Grey squirrels were also introduced to Vancouver Island, South Africa, and Australia — though Commonwealth of australia managed to extirpate the species in the 1970s .

Grey squirrels are also harming native plants. Squirrels weaken native trees past stripping bark from their branches, making them more susceptible to disease. In the Uk, grey squirrels cause an gauge £xiv million worth of damage to the forestry industry each year.
Rosy Wolfsnails Consume Other Snails to Extinction

Hawaii & the Pacific Islands

An invasive rosy wolfsnail in Hawaii. Photograph © Patrick Feller / Flickr

"Wolf snail" might sound similar an oxymoron, but it's not a misnomer. Native to Central America and the southern US, this voracious snail predator eats other species of snail and slug.

And that'southward the problem. In (yet some other) jumbo whoopsie, people deliberately introduced the rosy wolfsnail to Hawaii and other Pacific Islands, where they hoped (with scant evidence) that it would control another invasive species, the behemothic African state snail. Y'all tin guess what happened side by side.

Instead of preying on the African state snail, the rosy wolfsnails started devouring Hawaii's unique tree snail species. Many of these species have low reproductive rates, making them all too vulnerable to a voracious predator.

Since then, eight of Hawaii's tree snail species accept gone extinct . Scientists approximate that, since the year 1500, ane-third of all isle mollusk extinctions were caused past the rosy wolfsnail (and ultimately, humans.)