What does a million camels roaming wild across Australia do if they are not native to the island? Who decided to bring reindeer to Iceland to make it more attractive? Who came up with sending ostriches to Texas? And who had the idea of filling New York with starlings, even though this species had never inhabited the city?
There was a time when, for different reasons, people began moving animals from one place to another around the world: beavers, salmon, geese, squirrels, parrots, deer, trout, and even hippos. Sometimes out of whim or to complete exotic zoos; others to profit from their feathers and skins; and others to use them as means of transportation. But many of these attempts did not go well. Not at all. The biologist Ángel León Panal has traced these stories in archives of all kinds, uncovering ideas as wild as they were reckless. He collects them in Historia de las especies invasoras and explains, for Condé Nast Traveler, some of the most surprising cases and their consequences.
When They Wanted to Create a Savannah in the United States
One of the things that most surprised the author to discover is the attempt to introduce hippos into the United States. The story began in a surprising way. In 1884, an international convention in Orleans, the World Cotton Centennial, brought together delegations from around the world. At the event attended a group of representatives from the Japanese government and as a gesture of gratitude, they presented aquatic plants, with beautiful flowers, that had been imported from Venezuela, the water hyacinth. Once this plant reached the rivers of Louisiana, it grew and covered everything in green. It then spread through the Gulf states up to Florida in 1890 where in some areas you could collect up to 50 kg per square meter. There were many attempts to eradicate it, but they did not work.
