Interesting/Little Known introduced populations

The Japanese beetle Popillia japonica is a real invasive species which was first found outside Japan in 1916 in the USA were it is now found in a number of places.
1970 it was found on one of the Azore-islands ( Terceira ) and can now be found on almost every island of the Azores.
2014 a population was found in Northern Italy and 2017 already in Switzerland ( :( ).

Japanese beetle.png
 
The Japanese beetle Popillia japonica is a real invasive species which was first found outside Japan in 1916 in the USA were it is now found in a number of places.
1970 it was found on one of the Azore-islands ( Terceira ) and can now be found on almost every island of the Azores.
2014 a population was found in Northern Italy and 2017 already in Switzerland ( :( ).

View attachment 333403
I see them everywhere. They eat plants out of you garden and fly into swimming pools like crazy. They are very annoying.
 
Japanese beetles are certainly not a case of a "little known" introduced population. Maybe more little known are the California king snake (Lampropeltis getula californiae) and Caribbean bark scorpion (Centruroides gracilis) both trhiving in Teneriffe, Canary Islands.
 
I know a number of Reeves' muntjac deer have settled in central England. Most were escapees, and deliberate releases, from Woburn Safari Park in the 20th Century.
 
Masked palm civets have established themselves in Japan since at least the 1940's, although records of what might be civets date back to the 19th century. There was a lot of doubt for a while over whether or not they were native, but it seems like at least during WWII several were imported from Taiwan for fur and possibly food. Ever since, they've become even more common than foxes and tanuki in some areas.

http://wildmic.npust.edu.tw/ezfiles...mcivetPagumalarvata(Viverridae,Carnivora).pdf

Raccoons are still thriving there, as well. There was a brief craze of importing them as pets around the 70's due in part to a popular anime. Raccoons being raccoons, of course, they've made themselves at home easily. (Funnily enough, whenever you see a tanuki/raccoon dog in an English translation of an anime or Japanese game they will invariably be misidentified as just "raccoons".)
 
Common waxbill has some feral populations in Europe ( quite well known I guess ) but also in Brazil ( less well-known I guess ).
 
I am amazed nobody mentioned the biggest introduced species I am aware of:
Hippopotamus in Colombia.
It started with 4 escaped hippos that were left over after te private zoo of the famous drugdealer Pablo Escobar was taken over by the government after Escobar was killer in a special forces operation. Now there seems to be over 40 of them living in some lakes and rivers in Colombia.
 
Where is the last place you would expect to see an aquatic African frog?

Tucson, Arizona.

Apparently there is a small introduced population of African Clawed Frogs there.
 
Back
Top