I think we have all seen the videos about beavers cleaning up environmental issues, but there is some data about other "clean up crews" that are dealing with serious environmental issues. Pythons took out 90% of the animals in the Everglades. The 10% left learned from the experience and starting striking back. They learned how to avoid the large adults, and how to hunt the small juveniles. They could take them out before the pythons could reproduce.
In some counties in Texas, Oklahoma, and the Southeast; $75 bounties were offered for coyotes in order protect lifestock. Well, giant feral hogs moved in and decimated crops in counties that offered the bounties. One large group of feral hogs could could destroy entire fields in one night. In the bounty free counties, coyotes learned group hunting methods to take down up to 600 pound hogs. In the counties with coyotes, they were relatively hog free.
In a documentary called The Biggest Little Farm, in the first year starlings destroyed 80% of their cherries and fruit. The next year the falcons, hawks, eagles, and owls arrived and the problem was solved.
Emerald ash borers have destroyed over 100 million ash trees. Canada and the U.S. have spent billions fighting this insect with little success. It costs $100-300 per year to chemically treat one tree. A researcher noticed that in areas with the biggest problem with emerald ash borers; there was a radical Increase of 3 species of woodpeckers, and one species of nuthatch, who were cooperatively cleaning up the problem one dinner at a time.
In some counties in Texas, Oklahoma, and the Southeast; $75 bounties were offered for coyotes in order protect lifestock. Well, giant feral hogs moved in and decimated crops in counties that offered the bounties. One large group of feral hogs could could destroy entire fields in one night. In the bounty free counties, coyotes learned group hunting methods to take down up to 600 pound hogs. In the counties with coyotes, they were relatively hog free.
In a documentary called The Biggest Little Farm, in the first year starlings destroyed 80% of their cherries and fruit. The next year the falcons, hawks, eagles, and owls arrived and the problem was solved.
Emerald ash borers have destroyed over 100 million ash trees. Canada and the U.S. have spent billions fighting this insect with little success. It costs $100-300 per year to chemically treat one tree. A researcher noticed that in areas with the biggest problem with emerald ash borers; there was a radical Increase of 3 species of woodpeckers, and one species of nuthatch, who were cooperatively cleaning up the problem one dinner at a time.
