Text | Yi Yichuan
Editor|Yi Yichuan
preface
China has suffered from invasive alien species such as Fushou snails, crayfish, etc., causing huge losses to the mainland's agricultural industry, and now the mainland is facing new invasive alien species, many people believe that it is a "century-old giant turtle", which is identified by experts as a Florida turtle.
Florida turtle, also known as pearl turtle, is an alien species from the United States, and now appears frequently in 16 provinces on the mainland, according to netizens, the continued flooding of this pearl turtle will cause great losses to the mainland ecological environment, and even the Yellow River will be "broken".
Is this a netizen bluff? Or is it a fact? If this is true, what measures should the mainland take to curb its spread?
First, everyone's cognition of "turtle"
There are many kinds of names for turtles in the mainland, it is also called turtle, water fish, king eight, foot fish and other names, turtles in the mainland is also more species, so sometimes it is difficult to distinguish which category it belongs to.
Because it contains a large amount of collagen in the body with beauty and skin care effects, and also contains unsaturated fatty acids can also enhance people's memory and delay mental decline, turtle is also a delicacy on the continental table.
In the past, there were many wild turtles, and people could often catch wild turtles by the river, so many people were happy when they caught them, especially those that were relatively large and could make the caught people have a good meal.
With the past few years, many areas have appeared "century-old giant turtle", because of its relatively large size, many people think that it is an old "century-old giant turtle", but these so-called "century-old giant turtle" is not the Chinese turtle that people think, it is an invasive alien species pearl turtle.
Pearl turtle, also known as Florida turtle, it originated from Florida, the United States, it relies on carnivorous for survival, easy to breed, fast growth, has been in many places on the mainland has spread this turtle, so how did this turtle come to the mainland?
Second, why did the mainland introduce American pearl turtles?
In the eighties of last century, with the popular people's love for the Chinese turtle as a delicacy, the number of Chinese turtles in the mainland decreased sharply, because the Chinese turtles raised in the mainland grew slowly, were small, and even tore each other for food, which led to the small number of Chinese turtles and it was difficult to meet the demand in the market.
Compared with the mainland native Chinese turtle, the pearl turtle is more docile and will not bite each other between the same kind, plus the growth rate of the pearl turtle is faster, the body size is relatively large, in order to meet the domestic market demand, the mainland has introduced the pearl turtle from the United States.
In the early 90s of last century, because pearl turtles were relatively cost-effective, a farm in Xiamen, mainland China, took the lead in introducing this exotic turtle, and also gave this exotic species a good name such as pearl turtles.
At first, Chinese farmers thought that these pearl turtles from the United States were not easy to keep, but they did not expect that pearl turtles could quickly adapt to China in China, it not only has strong reproductive ability, but also grows at a rate of about 3~5 kg a year.
This also makes many farmers see the business opportunity, so they have begun to introduce this pearl turtle, according to statistics, up to 16 provinces in China have introduced this pearl turtle.
Third, why do pearl turtles escape?
With the cultivation of most people in the mainland, this has led to some pearl turtles taking the opportunity to escape.
Because the farmers of pearl turtles are basically southern, and the south often rains, once the rainy season, the water level in the pond will rise and may overflow, which gives the pearl turtle a chance to escape, as the water level rises, the pearl turtle can easily run to other waters.
The appearance of the pearl turtle is also relatively good-looking, which makes many farmers sell the pearl turtle as an ornamental turtle to various aquarium markets when it is very young, which has attracted many citizens to buy, and few people will eat the general farmed turtle.
Pearl turtles grow faster, many families will release it when the water tank cannot be filled, let it return to nature, and some people in order to "release blessings", when they hear about the "century-old giant turtle" (that is, pearl turtle), they will buy it to release it in the nearby river.
Pearl turtles feed on meat, often prey on some small fish, shrimp, small earthworms and other microorganisms in the water, so the creatures around it have suffered, and the flooding of pearl turtles will seriously damage the ecological environment of the water.
Sudden species such as pearl turtles are likely to cause the mainland's native turtles to reduce their food, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of mainland turtles and may even face the risk of extinction.
Fourth, pearl turtles appear frequently
At present, there are more and more news about the mainland people finding pearl turtles in the wild, and even many fishing enthusiasts can catch this pearl turtle when fishing in the wild.
In 2021, an angler in Guangdong once caught an oversized giant turtle, even the net in the hands of the angler can not be put down, according to this angler: it is very fierce, even the net is about to be broken, the angler on the side does not recognize what kind of turtle it is, so he sent a circle of friends.
At this time, several friends wanted to bid to buy this "giant turtle", and some friends could see in the photo that this turtle was an alien species pearl turtle.
With the frequent appearance of pearl turtles, when a villager in Nanyang, Henan Province went out to play, he accidentally found such an old turtle by the river, it is 75 cm long and weighs about 46 kg, everyone agrees that this is the "century-old giant turtle".
This kind of "century-old giant turtle" is extremely rare, and someone once bid 20,000 to buy this "century-old giant turtle", thinking of going home to stew soup and nourish, but this villager found an "excuse" to refuse, because this villager also felt that this "century-old giant turtle" has spirituality.
So it was released in a nearby reservoir, and this matter was posted on the Internet and also appeared on the hot search, which not only aroused the onlookers of the melon-eating masses, but also attracted the attention of relevant experts, identifying that this is an alien species of pearl turtle.
There was also a pearl turtle found in the Chanhe River in Xi'an, knowing that this Chanhe River has multiple forks connected to the Yellow River, so will this turtle adapt to the waters of the Yellow River? If adapted, it may soon flood the Yellow River, which poses a huge threat to the ecology of the Yellow River.
This proliferation of invasive species has been happening as early as Spain, when about 1 million pearl turtles crossed the ocean to Spain, but due to the mismanagement of the Spaniards, pearl turtles multiplied in Spanish lakes, eventually leading to flooding.
In 2009, an international conference on the dangers of biological invasions made us find that the mainland has unknowingly become one of the countries most affected by the invasion of alien species, according to statistics, the mainland loses about 50 billion directly or indirectly due to invasive alien species every year.
5. Invasive alien species on the mainland
In addition to pearl turtles, the most famous exotic species for the mainland is still crayfish, which were first imported into the United States from Japan, when Japan just wanted to use crayfish as feed for raising bullfrogs, but did not expect that crayfish turned over Japan's bullfrogs.
Around 1940, Japan brought crayfish to the mainland, crayfish in the field when they first entered the mainland, often destroying crops, but also made farmers hate this creature, until Hubei, Sichuan and other places merchants invented "spicy crayfish", which brought the "good days" of crayfish to an end.
Until now, every summer, there will often be "spicy crayfish" in the night market stalls, and over time, the wild crayfish in the mainland fields can no longer meet our domestic market, which has also risen the industry of crayfish farming.
Although crayfish in some areas are in short supply, in Weining Caohai National Nature Reserve in Guizhou, crayfish have become a disaster, and the main harm of crayfish is the threat to fish and aquatic plants in the area where it lives.
According to reports, crayfish have also invaded the terraces of Yuanyang, Yunnan, where crayfish continue to breed and burrow, which has seriously threatened the landscape of paddy fields, and the Hani rice terraces in Yuanyang, a famous world cultural heritage on the mainland, have been seriously damaged by crayfish.
In order to protect the Hani Rice Terraces, the local government has invested a lot of manpower and material resources specifically for this, in order to better eliminate crayfish, otherwise it will easily lead to water leakage and water seepage in the Hani Rice Terraces, thus affecting the visual beauty.
Not only crayfish, but also a "scavenger" exotic fish species on the mainland, because it can clean up the garbage in the fish tank, so there are many fish farmers who will often buy fish tanks to put at home, and some people will release the scavengers at the same time as releasing ornamental fish.
Although the scavenger can clean up the garbage in the water, it mainly feeds on fish eggs, and its vitality is extremely strong, if it is released in the wild, it will easily destroy the ecological balance in the water, resulting in flooding.
The most infuriating is the Fushou snail, a freshwater snail native to tropical Central America, first introduced to China as a food use, and later eliminated by the market because of its excessive parasites, but its reproductive ability is very strong, slowly flooded.
Fushou snail's strong reproductive ability has completely occupied the river "clean", so it makes the river cleaning personnel "headache", because the eggs of Fushou snail have a strong adsorption force, resulting in more difficult cleaning, Fushou snail will eat small aquatic animals, which also poses a threat to the survival of aquatic animals.
Fushou snails also often multiply a large number of crops, which has led to serious impact on local aquatic products, resulting in great damage to the agricultural industry, bringing huge economic losses to farmers, and Fushou snails have become the enemy of agricultural production.
At present, the pearl turtle may not be so harmful compared to the above organisms, but it is also an alien species, and if it is flooded, it will also be a "disaster" for us.
6. What is the harm of these alien species invading rivers?
So everyone must be curious about what kind of harm these creatures will cause us if they flood in the river? Let's take the Yellow River as an example.
As one of the two "mother rivers" of the mainland, the Yellow River has given birth to our people in North China and Northwest China, and there have been a large number of alien species entrenched here, according to the Yellow River Fisheries Research Institute, there are currently 41 species of alien species in the Yellow River, and they have reproduced freely in the Yellow River.
Because there are many invasive alien species, the stable ecological link of the Yellow River has been broken, so that the native species of the Yellow River have sharply reduced their food due to the competition for alien invasion, which has led to the risk of "extinction" of many native organisms of the Yellow River.
Compared with Fushou snails and crayfish, pearl turtles reproduce more slowly, and the current flooding opportunity is not too large, fortunately, pearl turtles have not flooded in the Yellow River Basin, but we should also strengthen prevention, after all, the Yellow River is a sensitive area of mainland ecology and the frontier of alien species invasion.
Often in such cases, friends who like food will say: How many levels of protected animals are you going to eat? It seems that it can be solved by eating, but so far no alien species has been solved by "eating", and even our favorite crayfish are still flooding in some areas.
Seventh, how should we prevent the proliferation of pearl turtles?
In view of the current "escape" of pearl turtles, there are two main ways to source it, one is man-made "blind" release, and the other is breeding escape.
In fact, to put it bluntly, everyone mistakes the pearl turtle for a Chinese turtle, as long as everyone can master the knowledge to better identify it, so that you can effectively reduce the "blind" release behavior, so that you can not "do bad things with good intentions".
The appearance of the pearl turtle and the Chinese turtle is different, the body shape of the Chinese turtle is oval, the color of the back shell is basically dark green or tan, its back armor is a little soft to the touch, the small tail of the Chinese turtle will be shorter, and the size is different, the size of the Chinese turtle is not large, generally the body length is about 30 cm.
For the release behavior, the most effective way is to strengthen the education of the masses, so that the masses can understand the habits of animals, so as to reduce the "blind release", so that the mainland ecological environment can be "effectively".
For farmers, farmers should strengthen the awareness of ecological environment protection, install protective nets and other measures, so as to reduce the "escape" of pearl turtles.
epilogue
In order to better solve the impact of these invasive alien species on us, we should all work together to prevent problems before they occur, so as to limit the invasion of alien species to the greatest extent and participate in the common maintenance of the whole people, so as to better protect the ecological environment of the mainland.