Invasive Species: Effects & Management - Essay Example

This is if the method of eradication used is not appropriate (Zavaleta, Hobbs, and Mooney, 2001). It is important to understand that once an invasive animal inhabits an ecological system, it changes their environments by affecting the population of plans and animals living in the ecosystem. Take for example in the Island of Stewart, New Zealand. Exotic feral cats living there feed on flightless parrots called Kakapo. However, these exotic feral cats, found in the island feed overwhelmingly on the exotic rats on the islands (Sugiura, 2009).

These rats have a scientific name of Rattus spp. In this research, studies indicated that the exotic rats and the Kakapo fed on an endemic moth with a scientific name of Pringleophaga Marion. These moths played an important role in the nutrient circulation of the soil, and on this basis, removing the feral cats, would lead to an increase in the Kakapo parrots, and the exotic rats (Young, 2012). This would in turn lead to a reduction in the number of Moths, affecting the nutrient value of the soil.

On this basis, Barrow (2014) denotes that the removal of invasive animals, without a proper plan of identifying how to replace the roles they played in the ecosystem might lead to the degradation of the environment. Another example is the New Zealand government to eliminate an invasive stout with a scientific name Mustela ermina. These stoats heavily feed on Rats, and Possums. In order to eliminate and effectively remove these stoats, the government of New Zealand decided to use poison, which had a devastating effect (Oppel, Beaven, Bolton, Vickery, and Bodey, 2010).

The population of stoat was not eliminated by poison, but rats and possum were eliminated by poison. To survive, Stouts began feeding on birds and their eggs, greatly affecting the ecosystem. This is because the number of birds greatly reduced, thus the process of pollen