Natural History Wanderings

Anthropocene reports

The war against invasive species is often fought on islands. In a surprising number of cases, humans are winning.

From continent-sized Australia to tiny Pacific atolls, these places are wellsprings of unique plants and animals produced by evolutionary detours not available to their mainland brethren.

But that distinctiveness can also leave them defenseless against imported animals that munch on vegetation, prey on eggs and young, and generally upend millennia of isolation. While islands account for just 5% of the Earth’s land mass, they hold around 40% of threatened vertebrates and account for nearly two-thirds of all extinctionssince the 1500s.

Read more at The war on island invaders is more successful than you think