Audrey McAvoy, an Associated Press reporter in Hawaii, has filed a fascinating piece chronicling one of the human activities that have created the global mashup of animals and plants that is ecology in the Anthropocene. Here?s a snippet (as you read, keep in mind that islands are particularly vulnerable to serious environmental disruption from introduced species):
From the Maui News:
A helicopter pilot is pleading guilty to illegally flying deer from Maui to the Big Island, shedding light on a mystery that has been bewildering Hawaii: how did axis deer, an animal that can?t swim across the ocean, get to another island? But now federal authorities say the people behind the scheme also took several mouflon sheep from the Big Island and flew them to Maui.
Neither axis deer nor mouflon sheep are native to Hawaii and don?t have natural predators here. Their presence has damaged fragile native ecosystems and farms on the islands where they?ve become established. The alleged animal smugglers took the sheep to a Maui hunting ranch, and apparently didn?t release them into the wild. Even so, the sheep?s arrival on Maui for the first time deeply concerns conservationists who fear that the animals could escape or give others the idea to bring over more.
Click here to see what mouflon sheep are doing in parts of Hawaii where they are established. There are plenty available to hunt already.
Axis deer are posing management problems, as well. Here?s video of axis deer in a Maui park:
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=52137bb5c4320879a431db56ff31ccd2
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