Invasive species By Franklin Elementary 4 th grade

Invasive species By: Franklin Elementary 4 th grade students Corvallis, OR

What is an Invasive Species? Invasive species are animals or plants that are introduced to a new area and hurt the environment by making it a harder place to live in for the organisms that belong there. 40% of the animals on the endangered species list are there because of Invasive species.

How do they hurt the environment? Some of the damage they do is: • Killing other animals • Eating their food • Breeding with native species • Taking the native species’ habitat If it’s a plant, it might stop other plants from growing, or animals might eat it and get sick if it’s poisonous.

In other words, invasive species can: Destroy things Make our water gross Ruin the native species home Eat the native species’ food

Where are invasive species found? There a lot of invasive species in a lot of places. The map to the left shows how many invasive species are found in each state.

What kind of habitats do invasive species live in? You can find Invasive Species in ANY place imaginable! They can be in grass, trees, rivers, ponds, oceans, lakes, and any other place.

How can you prevent invasive species from spreading? • Clean your shoes before you go to a different hiking trail. • Wash your boat when you transport your boat to a different lake. • Stay on the trail. • Always change your shoes after walking in a lake

What can you do when you see an invasive species? If you have an invasive species, NEVER release it into the wild If you know that something is an invasive species, get rid of it Lots of plants are invasive species, so make sure you know what something is before planting it

Why might someone put an invasive species into the environment? • They can be brought to a new place to be put into aquariums. • Sometimes, people purposely put them into the wild to eat the animals they don’t like. • A lot of the time, it’s simply by accident.

Examples of two types of invasive species: Yellow Starthistle Brown Tree Snake

Where is the Yellow Starthistle found? Yellow Starthistles are originally from Eurasia, but were introduced to California in 1850. Yellow star thistles are found in sunny areas, deep well-soiled places, and on road sides

How is it invasive? The yellow star thistle might not look bad but it can: Kill horses when they eat it because it is poisonous Take up too much room, so other plants don’t have room to grow

What is a brown tree snake? A Brown Tree Snake is usually 15” long when it hatches, but they can grow to be 3 to 4 feet long. Sometimes they can grow to be 10 feet long. Wow! They are rear fanged semiconstrictors and are mildly venomous. Venom is used to help kill prey. When the snake catches the prey, venom goes down the snakes fangs, but they are small so they have to chew to penetrate skin. When they are mad you had better watch out!!! They aren’t threats to adults though.

How is it invasive? Brown tree snakes are native to Australia. They were first introduced to Guam in the 1950’s, accidently taken by a cargo ship. They are destructive by eating lots of lizards and birds, and causing major power outages by climbing on electrical lines.

Summary Invasive species are animals that are introduced to a new area and do so well, that they push out the native species. They can cause a lot of damage and we have to spend a lot of money trying to fix the problems they cause. It is very difficult to get rid of invasive species, so we need to avoid introducing them in the first place! There are invasive species all over the world, so we need to work hard to protect the native species that are being hurt.