It's happened time and time again- humans introduce a non-native species to kill another species and then have to confront unintended consequences. Amami Oshima is a subtropical island off the coast of Japan that is home to unique animal species like the Okinawa rail, the Iriomote leopard cat, and the Amami rabbit. But there are also venomous pit vipers called habu. In 1979, officials brought in 30 mongooses to eat the habu. Mongooses are immune to snake venom and will kill and eat snakes. The problem is that mongooses will eat snakes when there aren't delicious rabbits available. Besides, the pit vipers come out at night, when mongooses sleep. The mongooses helped themselves to the endangered Amami rabbits and the Ryukyu long-furred rat. By 2000, there were 10,000 or so mongooses on the island.
That's when Japan announced a mongoose-eradication program involving 30,000 traps and trained dogs, deployed by a group called the Amami Mongoose Busters. It took almost twenty years, but this week Amami Oshima has been declared mongoose-free, since no mongoose has been seen for six years. The rabbit population is recovering. However, there is still a danger of mongooses moving in from Okinawa, where mongooses were also introduced to control snakes. -via Gizmodo
(Image credit: Thomas Fuhrmann)
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