10 animals that should NOT be in the UK - Non-Native Species

hi everyone it's liam here from a shot of wildlife in this video i'm going to talk about 10 non-native species that are living wild in the uk first up and possibly the most surprising animal in this video is the raccoon now before you think of making things up there have been at least 18 records of raccoons in the wild since 2014 from the north of scotland to almost the southern coast of england these are probably escape pets or deliberate releases but as raccoons can survive in our climate and have already colonised much of mainland europe this north american native has the potential to become a real issue if they become established here they're intelligent opportunists and will eat everything from human scraps to birds amphibians and small mammals next up is the midwife toad these one and a half inch amphibians are native to most of europe and northern africa that have been introduced to various locations around england and wales they're mostly secretive and nocturnal but the males can give themselves away in the breeding season with the alien sounding beeping cool they get their name from their breeding strategy where after fertilization the male wraps the developing eggs around his back legs and carries them until the tadpoles are ready to hatch at which point he drops them off into a suitable pool of water as these are quite small their potential impact on native species isn't really well known although it's thought that they may carry diseases that they could pass on to native amphibians the next species is one of the most famous and well-known non-natives which you probably expected to see on this list the grey squirrel these arboreal rodents were first introduced in the 1880s and soon with the help of people and their rapid reproduction spread across most of the country unfortunately their colonization hasn't came without a cost as they have out-competed and passed on a fatal disease to the native red squirrel which has subsequently gone extinct in most of its original range from the best known non-native to one that may be surprising or completely expected depending on which parts of the uk you are familiar with the ring next parakeet with various stories of how they were introduced parakeets began being spotted regularly in the wild in the 1970s and had been seen occasionally decades before this there is now thought to be more than a hundred thousand of these birds in the country and their numbers are continuing to rise they're mainly found in close proximity to cities and large towns but they are gradually spreading into the countryside where they come into competition with native species for resources and into conflict with farmers over the damage they can cause the crops [Music] the next animal on this list is actually two separate species the yellow bellied and the red eared terrapin both of these were commonly kept as pets by people who had seen the teenage mutant ninja turtles films what started out as 50p sized aquarium-based animals soon out grew their accommodation and were released to hundreds of sites around the country they can live for 30 years and seem to do fairly well in urban ponds and freshwater streams and thankfully they haven't been recorded as successfully breeding here yet if the climate continues to warm this might happen in the future at which point the terrapins could pose a massive threat to freshwater invertebrates and fish speaking of fish our next non-native is the king carp these were brought to the uk by monks in the 12th century and were originally kept in ponds for food they soon escaped into the wild and due to a recent surge in popularity for this species as a target for anglers they've been introduced to waterways around the country currently their main impact seems to be that they can hybridize with the native and endangered cruising club which isn't great in the usa where they are much more numerous they are often treated as a pest species and removed from waterways if caught the next creature is one that you may have heard about and that has received a lot of media attention the asian hornet these are established in france and since 2016 there have been 21 confirmed sightings and 12 nests found in this country all of these were promptly destroyed but the likelihood is that these winged predators will eventually colonize this country although they may seem menacing to humans their real impact is towards bees and other pollinating insects they often wait outside of beehives to snatch the bees from the air as they leave next up is another well-reported and impactful animal the american mink these relatives of the badger and the pole cap were brought to the uk to be reared for their fur but soon escaped into the world and were first recorded breeding here in 1956. over the coming years they were unfortunately released by activists who wanted to protect them from the fur trade but this bolstered their wild populations and they quickly spread across the country as they colonised they nearly wiped out the native waterfall and had a massive impact on many other species over recent years there has been a programme to eradicate mink and in areas where this has been successful the waterfall is gradually recovering and recolonising from an animal with a massive impact the one which may not have much of a negative impact on native species at all the mandarin duck the males of this species are beautiful and they're gradually spreading across the uk as their name hints they're originally from asia and were brought to this country to decorate private bird collections and surprise surprise they soon made their way into the countryside these birds are not found in any great numbers where they do occur and thus far no studies have shown that they have any detrimental impact to native species one group of animals that can definitely have a massive impact on native biodiversity is deer there are six well depending on your definition perhaps seven species of deer in the world in the uk and only two of them are native the red and the row the fallow deer was introduced in the 11th century the monk jack in 1838 the sikadir came in 1860 and the chinese water deer in the 1870s there was also a herd of reindeer in the campgrounds that were brought here in 1952 but in my mind they are captive and are no more wild than a hill-roaming flock of sheep all the non-native deer that do live wild in this country can have a negative impact by over grazing and preventing natural succession in woodlands now the mathematical amongst you will realize that i've already covered 10 different animals but here is a bonus creature that might belong on this list the koipew just like mink koipi were imported for the fur trade in the 1920s and 30s they managed to escape into the world and colonized the wetland area of the east of england known as the broads and by the 1960s it was estimated that there were as many as two hundred thousand living wild here they caused massive damage to waterside infrastructure and drainage and because of this a campaign was launched to eradicate them officially this was successful and in 1989 the last recorded wild coipu was captured and shot however in recent years there have been anecdotal records from people in the broads who claim to have seen a large coipu-like animal but i am less than convinced that something in the size of 10 rats could remain unnoticed for more than 30 years so there we go do you think it's possible that there's still koipew living here in the wild if you do let me know in the comments down below now if you enjoyed this video you may also like this other british wildlife video and if you like that subscribe for more thanks for watching and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: A Shot Of Wildlife

Views: 284,116

Keywords: non native species uk, invasive species uk, are parakeets in the uk, are raccoons in the uk, are carp in the uk, what species are invasive in the uk, american species in the uk, non native animals, invasive animals

Id: RpVEWzfyDoU

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 13 2022