this is but why a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public I'm Jane Lindholm on this show we take questions from kids just like you and we find answers aners and while your questions sometimes sound simple the answers are often really complex like this one I'm Leo I live in Cincinnati Ohio I'm almost five why did people bring invasive species to other countries why do people bring invasive species to other countries there are so many different ways to tackle that question Leo first we need t
o know what it means to be an invasive species then we need to think about how invasive species get from one place to another sometimes people move plants or animals on purpose and sometimes they don't even know they've picked up a hitchhiking snail or insect or algae and then we can talk about what to do about invasive species once they start crowding out or hurting the plants and animals that are already established in a place and it turns out you might have role to play in preventing the spre
ad of plants or animals that aren't really supposed to be in your neighborhood because once something has a strong presence in a new place it can be really hard to get rid of that's the case in Florida where we're going to start today where a very large type of snake originally from very far away in Asia has exploded in population over the last few decades today we are actually in an area of Everglades National Park known known as Shark Valley this is a very popular area for bicyclists and hiker
s because there is a paved 15m Loop that allows people to explore the heart of the Everglades Everglades National Park covers almost 2500 square miles in Southern Florida and is known for having some really wonderful Wildlife including alligators and crocodiles beautiful big birds and plants like cypress trees and flowering orchids but the ecosystem system is also threatened by invasive species I paid a visit to a park ranger at the Shark Valley Visitors Center recently to learn a little bit abo
ut the threats from relatively new plants and animals that don't belong in the park my name is IET Cano and my official title is Director of Education at Everglades National Park we could talk to you about a million different things here at Everglades National Park but one of the things that we're discussing lately and that kids have been wondering about are things called invasive species and I know you have some here in South Florida and maybe here in the park too that can cause problems and th
ey can be plants or animals so what makes something an invasive species so there are native species and non-native species a native species of a plant or an animal a living thing is something that has made it naturally to an area to grow or live and reproduce have young um a non-native species is described as something that is moved by people to an area so for the sake of an example I would say that we go to our favorite place in the world and we love a plant and we pick up the seed and we bring
the seed back home and we plant that seed at home and we plant it in our backyard that is now a non-native species in contrast if a seed makes it to South Florida in the Winds of a hurricane that is a natural process that species is considered a native species so that's just to give you an example now when you're looking at the behavior of being invasive most non-native species that become a problem is because they have that invasive ability they out compete our native species now don't misunde
rstand me there are some native species that have a little bit of an invasive attitude and that's okay too right um and they are propelled sometimes by nutrients extra nutrients in the water and things like that um but when we're looking at non-native invasive species like I mentioned they out compete our native species so one of the poster Childs of non-native species that has been on the news and has been all over the papers now for an extended period of time is of course the Burmese python on
I actually have a skin here for you and as you look at the skin you can see that it has a beautiful brown and tan pattern um and really allows this snake to blend into this environment just beautifully park ranger rette had been holding a rolled up snake skin and when she tried to unroll it it was so long she couldn't even unravel the whole thing when her arms were completely stretched out so these snakes are big but they're also a very big problem this is probably about a 13 foot burmes python
that's really large for our snakes here in South Florida our native snakes don't get this big um so when you see a snake this big in Florida it's definitely a non-native now the burmes python uh came because of course people wanted it as a pet and our ecosystems here in South Florida are conducive this warm um environment even during our Winters it's still pretty warm so if you're a reptile um and even in amphibian you like this kind of weather right so you got plenty of water plenty of food an
d the warmth that you need for that coldblooded body so these pythons actually start really small this one's 13 feet but when they're baby they're hardly a foot long and just like all reptiles they will grow to the size of what they consume now the Everglades was set aside for its biological diversity for life so we have plenty of food for these pythons to eat unfortunately so they have really wrecked Havoc especially on our small mammal population um we started to see a decline in small mammals
things such as rabbits and raccoons for example which may not seem as a big deal because rabbits and raccoons exist pretty much all over the world but when you start to create um an unbalanced system as a result of an introduction of a non-native invasive species um it becomes very challenging because the animals who were relying on the rabbits and raccoons now no longer have that as a food source or for example rabbits eat vegetation and disperse seeds that's also a very important role that th
ey play in our e ecosystem that now there isn't that dispersal or that population of rabbits 40 or 50 years ago there were no Burmese pythons in Florida except a few kept in captivity but today there are maybe as many as 300,000 of them living in the Everglades and all probably because people were keeping these snakes as pets and then letting them go No One released their snakes on purpose to do damage to other native animals they maybe just just couldn't take care of them anymore and didn't wan
t to kill them or have to admit that they couldn't handle them so they let them go lots of people probably thought they were doing the right thing but now these snakes are doing a lot of damage and they're really hard to get rid of so in some cases people are licensed to hunt and kill Burmese pythons that is correct they are impacting our ecosystem they're very very difficult to find so we have licensed individuals who know how to identify the snakes because here in South Florida we have over 30
species of native snakes we want the individuals catching the pythons to know exactly what they're catching that they're not catching our native snakes they're indeed catching pythons um and those organized efforts help but unfortunately there are a lot of snakes in the Everglades and the Everglades is really difficult to get across we are mostly wet whether it's fresh water brackish water or salt water it's not like we can walk across the lawn for example looking for a snake and these pythons
do an excellent job of utilizing the ecosystem for their advantage and you can see in this one that I have in particular how beautiful these patterns are how they blend right in to the ecosystem they will go right underneath the water and disappear from Plain Sight knowing that they're right at our feet um so there are efforts but unfortunately this is one invasive species that is going to be a part of the Everglades and we are going to continue to educate about it and um get rid of them as much
as we can from the landscape and like you mentioned we do unfortunately have to euthanize them we can't ship them back to where they're originally from because that of course starts other problems but with new Invaders we really put a lot of effort into understanding them and that's where the science come comes in right what are their behaviors and attacking them before they become a larger problem right looking at where those uh concentrated populations might be and making sure that we're gett
ing rid of them very very early on not allowing them to become more of a problem into the ecosystem what are some of the other invasive species here in the Everglades so we have a number of plant species many time we actually talk about animals because they have a face right um but we have more plant species than we do animal species Invaders um things like Brazilian pepper um Australian pine maluca all three of those plants are within the top five of our top Invaders of uh plants in the Evergla
des that we manage for so we'll burn we will apply herbicide to them uh to be a able to manage for those plants it's also a lot of money and it's not possible to spend the money to do that in every place where there are invasive species that is correct whether it's a plant or an animal removing invasive species is extremely costly it is very very difficult starting from the science of understanding what we're up against whether it's a plant or an animal and how that plant or animal will respond
to what we think might work and what will work here in everglaze National Park might not work in other places around the world because of the different situations right we don't have snow for example we're in a place you might have snow you're still going to have invasive species or you might have terrestrial animals that uh don't do well in water well this Everglades might not be their place right this might not be a place for them to uh be an invasive species so those kinds of things also dict
ate how we manage for uh invasive species very very costly indeed you brought up an interesting point about some of the plants which is that in some cases invasive species have been brought here or brought to wherever they are living on purpose not to be invasive people didn't try to do something bad but in a lot of cases invasive species are brought here for farming or uh as pets or a lot of plants are landscape plants that somebody thinks well this would look really pretty in my front yard I'm
going to plant this here and then it gets away from them um or you mentioned some animals have been brought over as pets and then they're released by people who realize oh I don't have the ability to take care of this animal what are some other ways invasive species get into an environment so accidentally so here in South Florida for example we have two really big ports and a Frog for example might jump on a boat or might be in a shipment of plants that are being moved from one area to another
and then they happen upon South Florida and they say hey in their own frog language this place is pretty comfortable and they decide to call it home and sometimes for example if we're using the Frog and they're being brought in these shipments of plants those frogs might be laying eggs in the plants so that uh we believe was the case for the Cuban tree frog um as well as the iguanas so some of that is still debatable because they have been here on the landscape for so many years back when we rea
lly War keeping records of how things were moving but we believe that both of those uh species came as a result of our ports through jumping on ships to be clear the word invasive is a pretty negative word and it might sound like the Invaders are doing something mean or bad or wrong they're definitely not they're just doing what they naturally do it's just that the other plants and animals around them evolve to compete with each other and then this new species comes in and it's able to sort of t
ake over partly because none of its natural Predators or competitors are around in this new place plants and animals are not at fault it's not their fault that they're here and that they're being called an invasive they did not raise their hand and say pick me move me right we have made those decisions the word invasive really describes the fact that they are competing whether it's a native or non-native they are competing and out competing an area they are growing way too fast or having too man
y babies and there's no competition right so in nature there's those es and flows when something is is can cause competition there's something like a predator that might eat it right and they're keeping things in Balance when you have a non-native invasive species the natural environment doesn't know how to respond to it so let's take again the python as an example our deer white tailed deer that exist in all North America they know how to respond to things like Panther right we have a Florida p
anther they see that as oo that cat might eat me right I should probably run but when they see a snake a snake has never posed a threat to a deer however this large snake especially as large as the one that I have here the skin of the one that I have here could eat a full grown deer so a deer doesn't necessarily run away or respond as we would think a human would for example if we see a 13ft snake right we're running right we're not interested in hanging out but a deer doesn't see it as a threat
so they don't necessarily understand because it is not part of our native ecosystem and that's also the difference between an invasive species and a non-native but non-invasive species species is they've either uh not doing so well or they've reached a kind of equilibrium a sense of balance with the native ecosystem and they're not causing a problem they're not out competing but maybe they do live here now so that's still non-native but we wouldn't consider that an invasive species right that i
s correct so if you have a non-native for example we have a number of palm trees that they've been brought from all over the world and they do well here but they don't have a whole lot of seeds and they it takes them a very long time to grow so they're not causing competition for our native species so yes spot on okay so Ranger evet here I am in South Florida and there's some beautiful plants here and I think H they would look really pretty where I live I'm getting the sense from what you're say
ing that I shouldn't put one of the seeds of one of the plants that I really like in my pocket and try to plant it at home even if it's just me just one home just one plant that's 100% % correct leave the plants where they belong leave them in their home right here in South Florida we don't have snow and I know in Vermont there's quite a bit of snow luckily the plants here probably won't do so well over there but on the chance that it might go ahead and leave those seeds where they belong if tha
t plant is intended to be one day in Vermont Mother Nature will make its way there and it too will be part of your native plant community so don't take the seeds just travel and admire the plants in their home lands coming up we learn about a small insect that's causing big problems this is but why a podcast for Curious Kids I'm Jane Lindholm and we're learning about invasive species today we were talking earlier with IET Koo about Burmese pythons and some of the other animals and plants doing d
amage in the Everglades National Park in a different part of the United States something much smaller is getting people concerned hi about why my name is Juliet I live in Philadelphia Pennsylvania I'm 5 years old and I want to know why the government said to kill as many spotted Lantern flies as you see in much of the Eastern United States spotted Lantern flies have started appearing and in states where they haven't taken hold people are encouraged to kill them if they find them Brian Walsh know
s all about these insects he's done research on them for Penn State University so we asked him to help answer Juliet's question first of all their name is pretty cool but do they look like lanterns with spots they kind of look a little bit like a cross between a grasshopper and a moth when they're flying and they have hind Wings in a bright red that everybody recognizes so they're they're kind of cool but when their wings are closed they're really um sometimes tough to see because they're they h
ave a gray outer Wing four wing and with little black uh black and gray patterns and spots on it and that really help it blend into tree bark and things like that really well but when they open up those wings they their bright red hindwings show and then you can see them real easy and there's not a whole lot that looks like it in our environment they're they're native in in um in and parts of China and uh Vietnam and I think Indonesia as well and so they don't belong in our hemisphere at all the
y don't belong on this side of the world but we accidentally moved them here uh when some material was being moved they laid looks like they lay their eggs on um maybe some pallets or the material that was being moved and the eggs got here and then hatched and started a whole population here remember how Ranger evet told us that sometimes species travel to a new place because they're tucked in with some vegetables or they might be on the side of a big ship that's bringing Goods to a New Port wel
l it's the same thing with spotted Lantern flies they were first found in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2014 and immediately people who work in agriculture and scientists who study insects were worried because these flies had already caused problems in other places where they had shown up uninvited um when they got to South Korea where they didn't belong either they qu Ally became a problem and that's where they realized in South Korea that they attack a lot of native plants and can do so
me damage especially to the grape industry it's grapes that they uh really go after and can kill and that's a problem they can reduce the the yields and harvest and they can kill the grape Vines so that's where we're most concerned with our farming and agriculture but they will attack just about any other plant that's out there and try and get a meal with from it with the exception of conifers like Pine trees and Spruce chees they don't like the conifers but um pretty much any deciduous tree the
y'll feed on including all the way down to uh vegetables in the garden things like that so um though they're they're less likely to to cause a lot of problem for those uh but it's the grapes that we're most concerned about back to Juliet's question researchers wanted to make sure spotted Lantern flies don't take hold in the United States or don't continue to spread at least but why are officials telling people to just go ahead and kill them so that's a great great question Juliet the the reason
that we want to kill Lantern flies is because they don't belong here and well we don't like to encourage killing things that are nature we don't like to kill animals for no reason even insects insects can teach us all kinds of things and insects and spiders they can be really good for us spotted lanter flies are not they don't belong in our environment we brought them here accidentally um humans did and so because they're here we wind up having to do other things to try and control the spot of l
anter flies to keep them from from destroying our crops that we need to feed uh to feed ourselves and um because of that we want to encourage people to kill them when they can and also the other thing is if you kill them then it's less likely to get accidentally moved to somewhere else and because she's in Pennsylvania there's a good chance she's already already seen them and there are a lot of parts of our country that have not seen them and don't have them yet and they are really good at hitch
hiking either they'll lay their eggs on different things that we move or they'll all even just hop into a car or onto a train and so we want to keep them from accidentally being spread further away and into other parts of our country where they aren't yet and so they can't spread if we kill them that's that's the important thing and the other thing I would say is if you're in an area where they don't don't have lanter FES yet and you see one make sure you report it report it to um your local Cou
nty a agency or your extension office but let somebody know if you're somewhere else where it hasn't been found yet make sure if you if you see one or your parents see one make sure that they report it and then um people can start taking a look at maybe maybe getting it under control in that new area there are also traps or pesticides that can be used to kill them and research is underway by Brian and other to find new ways to control these insects without needing to squash them still it probabl
y does feel weird to be told to kill these bugs when you've been told before not to kill other insects or types of animals the important thing to remember is most bugs don't do us any harm at all most of the bugs that are out there are just kind of doing their thing or they actually help us in a lot of ways and this bug unfortunately doesn't it feeds on it feeds on our plants that other bugs or other animals might need to use to make their living and so because of that you know we we worry about
this with invasive species that they displace our native species and so that's that's why it's okay to kill this one it doesn't belong here and we didn't bring it here on purpose and because it's here and it's kind of getting out of control you know we need to do what we can to try and stop it just make sure you know what spotted Lantern flies look like before you start stomping bugs at recess always do your research before taking any action we've learned a lot about invasive species today and
it's a really complicated topic one that can bring up strong feelings there are things though that you can do to be part of the solution the first is never intentionally spread invasive species so if you're riding in a boat be careful to make sure that that boat gets cleaned off before it goes from one Waterway to another and also you can make sure you're buying native plants at Garden Centers you can also be careful about which animals you buy as pets do a lot of research before bringing an ani
mal into your home some cute baby animals get really big like the Burmese python are you going to be ready to feed and care for a snake that's 13 ft long and can eat a whole deer and some animals live for a very long time are you prepared to keep your pet turtle for 30 or maybe 50 years if if you do find yourself with a pet you can no longer care for never release it into the wild even if you think it's just a cute little frog and no one will notice surrender it to an Animal Care Center or check
in with your area's fish and wildlife agency to get advice for what to do Everglades Ranger evet Cano also says learning about the world around you can be a good first step in thinking about how to protect your local ecosystem educating yourself right going to wherever home is finding these these natural areas finding the why why is this spe this place special what makes it tick why am I connected to this place right is it the history is it for example like everglaze National Park that we're co
nnected to the water right the water goes into the biscane aquifer and we drink that water and everything is a sensitive balance in this biological diverse Park so finding the why when you find the why that fuels your passion and your desire to care and educate others and when I talk about education I don't want you to think that you need to be some old person like in your 20s becoming a teacher because for some of you I know it's a long long time from now you can be a teacher right now when you
're three or five or 10 we all can be teachers and the way we do that is by educating ourselves getting the information right making sure we know what we're talking about and then empowering others that's pretty good advice for all kinds of things explore what's around you figure out what makes you passionate and then learn all about it so you can share your knowledge with other people that's it for this episode thanks to IET Cano Everglades National Park and Brian Walsh for taking the time to t
alk invasives with us now if you have a question about anything have an adult record it you can do it on a smartphone using a free voice memo or voice recorder app then have your adult email the file to questions buty kids.org you can find all of this information also at our website buty kids.org where you can submit your questions directly remember we can't answer every question we get but we do listen to all of them and we love hearing what's on your mind but why is produced by Melody bodette
Kiana has Haskin and me Jane Lindholm at Vermont Public we're distributed by PRX our theme music is by Luke Reynolds we'll be back in 2 weeks with an allnew episode until then stay curious oh
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