Crowded out

People never seem to under stand that releasing foreign fish or animals into our environment is bad. May be this pictorial representation of the damage they are doing will bring the message home. 

A small section of a river crowded with foreign fish.

Those cute little turtles in the pet shops that are oh so smelly to maintain go into our fresh water catchment areas too when they are no longer cute. Red-eared sliders come from America, they are not local. The fish seen here with the turtles are all foreign species too. So where are our local fish?

They have been out numbered. It took a while to find one local fish (the common snakehead in the center) among the introduced species.

There are reasons why introducing foreign species are bad for our environment. The photos above tell the story.

1. Foreign species push out local competitors. They can drive local animals to extinction.
2. Foreign species may have no know predators. They can become over populated.
3. Foreign species can be more aggressive or prolific breeders. They compete with local animals for space and food, or prey on the local animals.