Invasive Species of Florida - Documentary [HD]

[Music] Florida is one of the most biodiverse states in America but there's a fret did his natural balance new animals was from far away have managed to upset the established order they are an invasive species and they threaten the livelihood of Florida's ecosystems [Music] an invasive species is one that is introduced to a new ecosystem by human activity unlike non-native species invasive species damage Danu environment in Miami one invasive animal has become both a privilege and a nuisance peafowl these birds are originally from India but were brought as pets in the 1970s today they are found all around Florida the highest concentration of peafowl is here in Coconut Grove warm climate and lush vegetation make it an ideal home with no natural predators dis invasive species has found an easy home in the urban jungle spring is the start of mating season peacocks use a colorful plumage to attract females the more extravagant the plumage the more likely they are to mate this young male is trying his luck preening elves keep his feathers clean and upright [Music] [Music] he's been noticed she's not interested some residents enjoy the ornamental birds others can't stand them their droppings are slightly corrosive and can transmit disease through bacteria they scratch cars block driveways and ruin Gardens communities are trying to reach an agreement on how to control the population listen to this what this is beautiful to me just listening to this it's like I'm living in a in Indian jungle you know you don't hear that anywhere else that's the beauty of Coconut Grove I know the person who brought it mean and this guy brought a couple as a pair not knowing this guy's can fly they couldn't keep him and make sure you know there are no hundreds over they were very few you barely could see him walking down the street now they're all over the place are they invasive no I don't think so peacocks can't change ecosystem here you know III really don't believe that they're gonna cause problem I have not hear anyone complaining but they got some sort of disease by being near the peacocks I feed them all the time because there's so many of them and I don't think there's enough out there for them to eat they even have a part down the street called peacock Park it's becoming part of our lives here you know a peacocks beauty has always helped it survive some invasive species go beyond simply being an inconvenience they put other animal populations at risk Florida has the biggest wetland ecosystem in the northern hemisphere 3,500 square miles of subtropical wilderness is home to a great variety of life over 750 animal species live in the Everglades alone here lives one animal that can decimate native populations [Music] this is a tegu a South American reptile that has managed to thrive in Florida a similar habitat they can grow up to 4 feet long and feed primarily on the EX of birds and other reptiles they came here as pets but were released by a breeding operation in 2005 they now threaten the livelihood of native animals by eating their young local hunter Rodney Irvin knows this all too well I am a fourth generation Floridian the environment is important to me because it's my home the plants the animals the water all things that I've grown up with because of the threat they pose it is legal to kill them they are a serious threat to our natives but that doesn't mean they have to be killed it's not the tegus fault i catched a goose for a living this is what I do full-time [Music] catching tegus isn't always easy they live in dense grass and are able to climb burrow and swim I capture them using live animal traps as an animal that eat eggs they have the capacity to take out an entire generation of our natives in one feeding eventually this will cause a serious disruption in the native population cameras helped brought me map population density [Music] [Music] I removed them from the environment and I sell them it is a business apparently unique when I sell them to different parts of the country I don't necessarily have to worry about someone in Minnesota releasing their tag ooh that tagged you is not going to find another tag ooh in the wild and start a super population like we have here anywhere else an exotic solution to an exotic problem catching reptiles is difficult but what about animals that live in the biggest environment of all this is a lionfish a venomous fish native to Africa and the end of Pacific genetic research has shown that lionfish were first introduced here in the 1990s it's pretty safe to say that they've already had an effect on fisheries they're not selective in what they eat at all so they're eating snappers and groupers that are important to us commercially but they're also eating other fish like parrotfish and surgeonfish when they're small and in their juvenile stages these fishes are extremely important to the reef habitats because they keep macro algae graze down without grazing down macro algae those plants essentially can over grow a reef and it goes from a coral dominated habitat to an algal dominated have - that's an algal dominated environment it's no longer growing and they will actually start to bio a road back down to just a benign flat habitat in an environment like a coral reef people come to see it because of all that beautiful biodiversity if you start to shift that reef towards a very benign environment you're going to lose a tremendous amount of money in tourist dollars and also a resource for all the people depending on the reef for food every year we've tourism generates over 100 million dollars so what I'm doing here in my lab is we're trying to put together a growth curve for the invasive population here in South Florida and what we'd like to show is that lionfish aren't as sedentary as I think they're believed to be and this is important for understanding the effects that they're having on their environment they also taste great we're trying to make a demand for them or make make an actual fishery for them so people can go to the grocery store and say hey there's lionfish for sale that's actually pretty good let's buy some if humans want to have that impact they can it's really just a matter of making the motivation my hope for South Florida and for all of Florida is that we we don't let the pressure up that we continue to recognize this as a significant problem we continue to appreciate the native ecosystems and the native organisms that we have here and we continue to try to protect them we've already brought these problems on the ecosystems we have here and we are the best solution as well there might still be hope the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or FWC wants to rally public support across the state the FWC holds events to educate the public and round up animals today kim Tarrington is volunteering for the FWC's exotic pet amnesty program South Florida is the invasive species capital of the world so you know having these kind of events here and promoting awareness isn't entirely important it's really really important it's exotic pet amnesty day and Paramus today is an opportunity for people to surrender pets that they may no longer be able to keep that or exotics it gives them the opportunity to turn them in with no questions asked since its inception in 2006 the amnesty program has received over 3,000 non-native animals unique pets animals from all over the world are surrendered a lot of times people they get real nervous or they're scared that they're gonna get in trouble and so if they have something even if they really care about it they may just release it into the wild are they just saying oh you'll be happy over here in this pond but then of course that animal ends up either not faring very well in the environment or - it actually becomes a part of the environment and that's when we end up with invasive education is the key point in all of this and the more that people know that even this opportunity is here I think the better we may never know the damage this work has prevented Florida's invasive species are here to stay but nature loves equilibrium eventually these ecosystems will adjust to the newcomers but at what cost [Music]

Channel: EcoReel

Views: 540,930

Keywords: nature, animals, florida, ocean, invasive species, pets, science, zoology, wildlife, outdoors, biology, ecology, documentary, environment, short film, adventure, explore, underwater, Florida wildlife, Florida documentary, Florida ecosystem, Florida biodiversity, Invasive plants, Invasive animals, Florida conservation, conservation, wildlife conservation, environmental issues, florida ecology, ecosystem, ecosystem threats, conservation documentary, florida documntary, wildlife documentary, biomes

Id: 0OBUtM10Wo0

Length: 13min 51sec (831 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 24 2018