Invasive Species - From the Vault

0:00Oh hey there! Remember when we were last down here in the Squiz Kids Vulp? I was dusting off some old episodes and I noticed something a little suspicious. Some tiny little droppings on the floor. Now at first I thought maybe Bryce has been snacking on chocolate sprinkles down here, but on closer inspection, nope, definitely not sprinkles. Which got me thinking about a Squiz Kids shortcut about how animals that might seem cute and harmless can sometimes cause big problems when they turn up in places that they're not meant to be. So I went rummaging through the shelves, passed the odd microphones and rubber bands and look what I found, an episode all about invasive species. The animals that march into a new ecosystem and start taking over, let's dust it off and give it another listen.

1:00This is a Squiz Kids podcast. Your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you. Cute little bunnies, fluffy cats and tiny mice. They seem sweet and harmless, but these animals are causing havoc all over Australia. This is your invasive species Squiz Kids shortcut. The podcast where we dive into the who, what, when, where, why and how of the big news stories. I'm Amanda Bauer and I'm Bryce Corvitt. We've been hearing a lot in the news lately about a mouse plague in New South Wales and feral pig problems all over the country. But Bryce, did you know that more than 3,000 species of animals have been introduced to Australia? Wow, that's a lot. Yep, and many of them threaten our delicate ecosystem. Today we'll explore what exactly an invasive species

2:01is, how they came to cause so much trouble, who's affected and what we can do about it. And don't forget to listen carefully because there's a Squiz at the end. What? First of all, we'd better get our vocabulary straight. What exactly is an invasive species? Maybe you want to hit pause and brainstorm. Or you can keep listening for some clues. Well, whenever I come across a word I don't know, I see if I can either break it apart or if it sounds like another word that I know. What does invasive sound like to you, Bryce? Hmm, sounds an awful lot like the word invasion, which comes from the verb to invade. Like when one country invades another in a war, they basically march in and take over. Nailed it! How many of you thought that an invasive species might be a kind of animal that goes into a new ecosystem and starts to take over? Well,

3:01if you did, you were right. Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there Amanda, you've gone and introduced another word, ecosystem. Ah, I do have a feeling that we'll be learning a lot of expert words today, Bryce. Hmm, although I bet most of the Squiz kids have learned about ecosystems and science already. Fair enough. Eco comes from ecology, which is the study of the relationships between living things and their environment. Oh, so an ecosystem is made up of all the living and non-living things native to a specific area. Exactly, and that's where invasive species come in. They're not native to the area and they can cause big trouble. I know what you're going to ask next. How? How on earth can a cute little cat, for example, cause trouble? Well, cats were introduced to Australia when English settlers came, and when some of them escaped and survived in the wild,

4:03they went from being purring pets to official problem pests. Oh, bet they did. Cats are carnivores, meaning they eat meat, and once they are up in the wild, they have to find a source of meat. Exactly, and that source of meat is native animals. They've caused more than 20 different Australian mammals to become extinct. Wow. Right, and another 124 species of birds and mammals are under threat from feral cats. Feral, by the way, is a word that describes domestic animals that have gone wild. The Australian government says they could be up to six million feral cats all over the country. That is a lot, and they are the single biggest threat to our native mammals, but they're definitely not the only troublemakers Amanda. Definitely not. One of the most infamous examples, infamous means that you're famous, but for a really bad reason, is... Right, like me.

5:04Is the cantoes? Cantoes were intentionally introduced to Queensland in 1935, because the sugar farmers up there hoped they would eat the beetles that were chowing down on their cane. Problem ones, the beetles lived up high in the stalks, and the toads lived down the low. Oh, so they didn't help out at all, I'm guessing. Not even a little bit, and they caused much bigger problems. Cantoes, although I think they look kind of gross, are apparently delicious to other animals, and they're also extremely poisonous. The Australian native animals didn't know that they should avoid them, and cantoes spread all over the top end of Australia, leaving dead native animals in their path. Oh, no! But why didn't the Australian native animals know to steer clear of them? Well, they'd never seen a cantoed before, and so they just didn't know they were trouble. Part of the reason invasive species are a terrible problem here in Australia is that 80% of our plants

6:06and animals don't exist anywhere else in the world, and so they just don't have any defences against these introduced animals. Right, poor Australian animals. But humans are animals too, do invasive species cause problems for us? Sure do. Let's find out who cops the worst of it. Who? Hear that? It's the rather horrifying sound of the mouse plague, currently threatening farmers in New South Wales. The worst. It is the worst mouse plague the state has seen in decades. Plagues describe an unusually large number of animals infesting a place, and they do tend to follow droughts. So they might just sort of survive while it's dry, and as soon as it starts to rain, they get to breeding. A single pair of mice can produce 500 babies in one season. Good Lord! Every parent knows, of course, that babies need to eat so what do all these mice munch on?

7:11Our farmers crops. The mice eat the seeds, they eat the fully grown plant, they'll even invade the storage silos to munch on the grain that's already been harvested. And even if they don't eat everything that's been stored, the farmers have to chuck the rest because the mice have pooed all over it. That is disgusting. That is not the half of it, Bryce. People have found mice in their homes, in their ceilings, in their rubbish bins. Mice have overrun schools and interrupted nap plan exams. What? They are in the stuffing of armchairs and they've even bitten people in hospital beds. How rude! Now, New South Wales farmers say that the mouse plague may end up costing one billion. That's billion with a B, one billion dollars in lost winter crops for this year alone. Yep, and let's not forget the effect on their mental health because they've got mice all around them, like all the time. Oh, the worst. Are there any other invasive species causing problems for

8:16humans? Hapes, have a listen to this. That's the sound of feral pigs and we reported recently on Squizz Kids today that their behaviour puts the same amount of carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere as 1.1 million cars. And here in Australia, right? And here in Australia we have 24 million pigs. Gosh! Then, of course, there are the Indian minor birds which are introduced to Australia to control locust plagues and are now on the World Conservation Union's list of the world's 100 worst invasive species. The birds spread mites and disease to humans while also sourcing native birds from their nests. Oh, I can't stand those birds. Yuck! And they're also rock pigeons. Their poo is so acidic that it actually burns and damages human property in historic stone buildings. What? Are you kidding me? This is also only a little bit awful, isn't it? So what can we do about it?

9:21What? Well, the first thing we can do is make sure that no more invasive species get into Australia. That's why we have such a strict quarantine system. Ah, yeah! I remember that even before coronavirus, quarantine meant that we couldn't bring fresh fruit and veggies into Australia, or even between some states, and that any animal coming into the country had to spend time in quarantine, being checked out by vets. Exactly. That kind of quarantine really is an important defense. And there are really simple things that cat owners can do too, like keep their cats inside at night or put a bell around their neck so that they can't sneak up on native animals. Yeah, the Australian government also has programs to try to control animals that have become feral, like the cats and pigs and mice and other creatures. Some of those programs do include poison, but they have to be really careful in case native animals or even domestic animals like our dogs

10:22and cats, eat the poison or the poisoned mice. Oh, right, yeah, of course. Clever scientists are also looking into lots of other inventive ways to deal with invasive animals, but that's the subject of another podcast. Time for the quiz. This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening. Question number one, what type of animal was introduced to try to get rid of beetles eating sugar cane in Queensland? That's right, it was the cane toad. Question two, why do new South Wales farmers have to chuck out some of their stored crops? You got it because they've been pooed on by mice, ew. Question number three, what simple thing can

11:23you put around your cat's neck to help save local wildlife? That's right, a bell. That's all we have time for today. Thanks for joining us as we explored the who, what, how, where, when, and why of invasive species in Australia. And as we say every day on the Squizz Kids today podcast, now get out there and have a most excellent day. Over and out.