Rabbits Not Only Eat Grass by the Nest: The Most Serious Biological Invasion Event in Human History Ecological Environment | Enhancement | Risk | Biology | Australia | Rabbits | Invasion | Species

When it comes to rabbits, in the eyes of most people, they must be quite cute. In modern society, rabbits are often kept as pets by many families. They are cute and easy to raise, so they have gained the favor of many people. However, in Australia, rabbits have caused significant ecological disasters to people. As is well known, biological invasion is a devastation to a country and a continent. Speaking of classic cases of biological invasion, the Australian rabbit is one of the "models". With just 24 rabbits, the entire Australia has suffered unbearably. For over 100 years, the competition between rabbits and local animals for food and habitat has seriously affected Australia's agricultural production and ecological security, leading to problems such as soil degradation, soil erosion, and biodiversity degradation. It is recognized as the most serious biological invasion event in human history.

The Big Bang of Rabbits Caused by a Random Release

Australian rabbits are European burrowing rabbits. In 1859, a British colonizer, in order to satisfy his hunting hobby, sent 12 rabbits and 5 European burrowing rabbits to his friends by mail. After simple breeding, they became 24 and were put on his own farm. Due to the abundant aquatic plants and suitable climate in Australia, the habitat environment is extremely suitable for rabbits to survive. In addition, rabbits lack natural enemies and breed quickly in Australia. From 1859 to 1866, the offspring of these rabbits rapidly expanded outward at an average speed of 130 kilometers per year without restrictions. In just over 60 years, rabbits invaded the entire continent of Australia. By 1926, the size of rabbits had reached around 10 billion, more than 1500 times the population of Australia at that time and two to three times the global population. To this day, there are still 200 to 300 million wild rabbits living in Australia, causing economic losses of up to 200 million Australian dollars annually. The battle between humans and rabbits is still ongoing.

The proliferation of rabbits leads to major ecological disasters

A large number of rabbits compete with local animals for food and habitat, destroy grasslands, nibble on crops, change the local plant community, and gradually evolve into an ecological disaster in Australia.

Agriculture and animal husbandry suffered huge losses. Australia is an agricultural and pastoral country, and agriculture and animal husbandry are one of the pillars of the national economy. The proliferation of wild rabbits seriously undermines the development of local agriculture and animal husbandry. From the perspective of grass consumption, the grass consumed by 10 billion rabbits is equivalent to the food consumption of about 1 billion sheep. During the drought period, rabbits can easily nibble on all the grass and plunder the food sources of animals such as sheep and cows. According to statistics from 1964, Australia's revenue from selling rabbit skin and meat was nearly AUD 1 million that year, but the reduced agricultural and animal husbandry income due to the rabbit disaster was several tens of times greater. As early as 1881, some farms in Australia were forced to give up farming and animal husbandry as a result. Australia, a country riding on sheep's backs, is facing a serious threat to the development of its livestock industry due to the shrinking grazing grasslands caused by the sharp increase in rabbits.

The ecological environment has suffered serious damage. The proliferation of wild rabbits has had a significant impact on Australia's plants and the entire ecological environment. In arid regions of Australia, having only 4 rabbits per hectare of land can render various plants on the land incapable of regeneration. Large scale rabbits gnaw on grass and bark trees, and dense rabbit holes penetrate empty land, leading to a sharp decline in soil and water conservation capacity in most parts of Australia's land. The increasingly serious phenomena of soil erosion, soil degradation, and desertification have caused irreparable damage to the local ecological environment.

Biodiversity is threatened. Rabbits are classified as "serious mammalian pests and invasive species" by Australia, and the 1999 Australian Federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act listed the ecological impact of rabbits as a "threatening process". Due to the sharp increase in the number of rabbits, they compete with local animals for habitat, threatening the survival of local marsupial herbivores, and even leading to the extinction or imminent extinction of dozens of species of protozoa in Australia. Among them, the oldest and smallest kangaroo in Australia, the kangaroo kangaroo, has also become extinct as a result.

24 rabbits bring inspiration

In natural ecosystems, the food chain and food web formed through long-term evolution between different organisms are the foundation for maintaining the structural and functional stability and sustainability of the ecosystem. Once changes in ecological balance are irreversible, the reality and human vision will go against each other.

Biological invasion has become a global challenge. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to strengthen biosafety management and prevent and control the invasion of alien species. Biological safety is related to people's lives and health, and to the long-term stability of the country. It is an important component of overall national security. China has discovered over 600 species of invasive alien species, making it one of the most severely affected countries in the world. Invasions of alien species cause economic losses of over 100 billion yuan annually. Therefore, it is particularly important to strengthen the construction of the national biosecurity risk prevention and control and governance system, and continuously prevent and control the invasion of alien species.

Accelerate the construction of a supervision and management system for invasive alien species. In recent years, with the increasing frequency of commodity trade and personnel exchanges in China, the diffusion pathways of invasive alien species have become more diverse and covert. Most invasive species can find suitable living environments in China. Once colonized, it is difficult to completely eradicate them, which will seriously affect the ecological environment of the invaded areas, damage the sustainable development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, and biodiversity. One is to conduct a census of invasive alien species, to understand the number, distribution range, and degree of harm of invasive alien species. Accelerate the revision of the National List of Invasive Species and conduct dynamic tracking and investigation of key invasive species. Classify and manage invasive species that are dangerous, potentially dangerous, or temporarily non dangerous, and expand supervision and management of invasive species that are potentially dangerous. The second is to strengthen the joint market supervision of invasive alien species both online and offline, strengthen the standardization and management of the trading process, strictly prohibit the trading of invasive alien species, strengthen the quarantine supervision of species transported across regions, and improve the quarantine permit, damage compensation, and accountability systems to deal with the risk of invasive alien species. The third is to strengthen departmental coordination and joint prevention and control. There are many types and a wide range of invasive alien species, involving different departments such as agriculture and rural areas, ecological environment, customs, natural resources, etc. Therefore, attention should be paid to the communication, coordination, and linkage mechanisms for cross departmental biological invasion risk prevention, and a multi departmental joint management system should be established.

Establish a sound monitoring and early warning system for the risk of biological species invasion. Invasive alien species refer to those that have been introduced and colonized, posing a threat or harm to the ecosystem, ecological environment, and species, and affecting national ecological security. Therefore, a sound risk monitoring and early warning system for biological species invasion should be established to provide technical support for timely understanding of the status of invasive alien species. On the one hand, a systematic assessment of the ecological environment of the region to which foreign species belong is conducted, and the risk of biological invasion by foreign species is analyzed and predicted. At the same time, we will establish a risk assessment system for biological species invasion, establish and improve a full chain prevention and control governance system for tracking, monitoring, identifying, ecological warning, and emergency response of alien species, and comprehensively prevent and control the risk of alien species invasion. On the other hand, establishing a risk database for invasive alien species, strengthening the sharing and evaluation of biosafety data and information, and enhancing the application of modern information technologies such as big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence in the field of risk prevention for invasive alien species. At the same time, we will strengthen technological support, strengthen the research and application of risk prevention and control technologies for invasive alien species, and explore the formation of a safe, efficient, and economically feasible technological system.

Strengthen awareness and education on biosafety and biological invasion risks. The public's level of awareness of biosafety and their understanding of the risks of invasive alien species will directly affect the effectiveness of China's biosafety construction. At present, there is a disparity in understanding the risks and harms of biosafety and invasive alien species at the societal level. It is urgent to investigate and understand the public's awareness of biosafety, strengthen public awareness and education on biosafety and invasive prevention and control, popularize knowledge of invasive alien species, establish a public participation and communication mechanism for biosafety and invasive alien species, so that the public can have a better understanding of the ways and serious hazards of invasive alien species, improve the overall awareness of preventing invasive alien species risks, and lay a solid mass foundation for preventing biosafety risks.