You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Invasive Species’ tag.
[As a special weekend treat–and in keeping with this week’s theme, kindly find a repeat of a post about brown bullhead catfish from 3 years ago]
The most common catfish in New York State is the brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus) a fish sometimes also gracelessly known as the “mud pout” or the “horned pout”. The brown bullhead lacks the beauty and charisma of many other catfish. It is not electrical, has no armor, does not walk, and does not grow to immense size (average fish are usually 14 inches long or smaller). It has two-tone coloration: unremarkable brown above and off-white below (although, like most fish, it can adapt somewhat to local conditions).
- The Brown Bullhead Catfish
The fish does however illustrate one of the reasons I like catfish and write about them so much. It is the most common catfish of New York State, a state marked by extreme differences of population density, landscape, temperature, and water quality. The brown bullhead is a hard-to-kill generalist which does well everywhere in the state (and throughout the east coast, the Great Lakes, the midwest, and the south). It can be found in Prospect Park, a short walk from my apartment just as easily as in a cold Adirondack lake. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website describes the fish as follows:
Brown bullheads are probably the most adaptable member of the catfish family and live in a wide variety of habitats. They exemplify the hardiness of catfishes in general, tolerating both high water temperatures and low oxygen levels. They are present in many cool Adirondack lakes and often abundant in warm water ponds, lakes, and larger, slow moving streams. They occur in areas with or without aquatic vegetation and can be found over both muddy and gravelly bottoms.
The brown bullhead has the same exquisitely refined senses as other catfish. Its whole body is covered with taste buds, which are particularly numerous on its eight barbels. Though not especially large, the creature is strong, agile, and flexible. An omnivore, the brown bullhead is protected from predators by the extremely sharp spines on its dorsal fin and its pectoral fins. Both parents builds nests together and together they protect the eggs and even the young fry for a while after hatching. Most astonishingly, the fish is heartily indifference to water pollution which makes it the foremost city catfish. Below it is pictured with the other common New York City fish. It is apparently a reasonably fun sportfish, although some fishing experts think that it is only suitable for child anglers (due to how extensively it can be found). When not caught in polluted water it makes a tasty meal.
Whereas I usually write about invasive species coming from some exotic locale to the United States, the brown bullhead is the opposite. When introduced abroad it has been the classic ugly American, stealing food and habitat from native species or eating them outright (which seems even more gauche than my habit of anxiously overtipping). Large populations have now established themselves in Europe, Russia, China, Australia, and New Zealand and the fish keep expanding their range.
- “Free me petty human! Soon your world will belong to us!”
The most common catfish in New York State is the brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus) a fish sometimes also gracelessly known as the “mud pout” or the “horned pout”. The brown bullhead lacks the beauty and charisma of many other catfish. It is not electrical, has no armor, does not walk, and does not grow to immense size (average fish are usually 14 inches long or smaller). It has two-tone coloration: unremarkable brown above and off-white below (although, like most fish, it can adapt somewhat to local conditions).
The Brown Bullhead Catfish
The fish does however illustrate one of the reasons I like catfish and write about them so much. It is the most common catfish of New York State, a state marked by extreme differences of population density, landscape, temperature, and water quality. The brown bullhead is a hard-to-kill generalist which does well everywhere in the state (and throughout the east coast, the Great Lakes, the midwest, and the south). It can be found in Prospect Park, a short walk from my apartment just as easily as in a cold Adirondack lake. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website describes the fish as follows:
Brown bullheads are probably the most adaptable member of the catfish family and live in a wide variety of habitats. They exemplify the hardiness of catfishes in general, tolerating both high water temperatures and low oxygen levels. They are present in many cool Adirondack lakes and often abundant in warm water ponds, lakes, and larger, slow moving streams. They occur in areas with or without aquatic vegetation and can be found over both muddy and gravelly bottoms.
The brown bullhead has the same exquisitely refined senses as other catfish. Its whole body is covered with taste buds, which are particularly numerous on its eight barbels. Though not especially large, the creature is strong, agile, and flexible. An omnivore, the brown bullhead is protected from predators by the extremely sharp spines on its dorsal fin and its pectoral fins. Both parents builds nests together and together they protect the eggs and even the young fry for a while after hatching. Most astonishingly, the fish is heartily indifference to water pollution which makes it the foremost city catfish. Below it is pictured with the other common New York City fish. It is apparently a reasonably fun sportfish, although some fishing experts think that it is only suitable for child anglers (due to how extensively it can be found). When not caught in polluted water it makes a tasty meal.
Whereas I usually write about invasive species coming from some exotic locale to the United States, the brown bullhead is the opposite. When introduced abroad it has been the classic ugly American, stealing food and habitat from native species or eating them outright (which seems even more gauche than my habit of anxiously overtipping). Large populations have now established themselves in Europe, Russia, China, Australia, and New Zealand and the fish keep expanding their range.
"Free me petty human! Soon your world will belong to us!"
I’m going to expand upon yesterday’s post about invasive animals in Florida. Pythons are indeed large aggressive predators, but it isn’t as though they chose to move to Florida like Aunt Edna when she retired. Enthusiasts brought them from Burma. The pythons escaped or were set free and they found a way to survive.
Florida’s groves of tasty, tasty oranges are hardly natives either. Over long centuries, Spaniards carefully hybridized trees that bore perfect sweet fruit. They then carried saplings across the oceans from the fragrant orchards of Iberia.
Fresh-squeezed, Ice-cold, Juicy…what was my point again?
We humans are ourselves an invasive tropical species from Africa. As we have explored the world, we have encountered all sorts of useful and interesting plants and animals. Thereafter we took those friends with us. Dogs, ducks, and dairy cows, roses, rye and rice–all of our favorite living things are invaders of a sort. Sometimes we make bad or dubious friends (pythons? really?) but our existence depends on the grains we harvest, the fruit we grow, and the animals we farm. Such is the price of our success. If we all returned to fishing, hunting, and gathering, we could expect to remove three or four zeros from our total population number of six billion.
The story of invasive species however extends far beyond humankind’s symbiotic alliances and restless propensities. A couple of quick examples will clarify this point. Like the pythons, Florida’s native manatees have a great deal of trouble with cold weather. Every winter, many starve to death in the warm outflows from power stations where they shelter (or they freeze outright). They must have expanded their range northwards as the ice ages ended. The armadillos that live on the panhandle are edentates who began trekking out of South America during the Pliocene (3 million years ago) when the Ismuth of Panama formed and rejoined the sundered Americas.
This story goes on and on and gets bigger and bigger: flowering plants showed up from elsewhere, so did mammals and reptiles back in the Paleozoic Era. In fact, if you go back far enough all life-forms are invaders.
Well, maybe some of us...
South Florida’s ecosystem has been trying to fend off an onslaught of non-native tropical animals, most notably the fearsome Burmese python, an apex predator from the haunted jungles of Southeast Asia. Internet surfers and reptile enthusiasts might remember the dramatic photo of a 13 foot python which burst open after trying to swallow a live 6 foot alligator whole.
Florida’s native birds, lapdogs, toddlers, and alligators will therefore rejoice at the past winter’s severity, which put a big dent in the python population (and left other non-native fish and reptiles frozen stiff across the state). Pythons fall into a catatonic stupor if temperatures plunge too low. In the depths of January when the mercury dipped into the thirties, rangers reported finding live snakes being methodically devoured by vultures. Homeowners were shocked by all of the iguana-cicles falling out of ornamental trees. Spring and summer will reveal how badly the invaders have been set back in comparison with Florida’s cold-tolerant native species.
California's governor has already implemented measures to prevent a similar infestation.
ferrebeekeeper 
