Every wise soul
All topped with poisonous chicken soup
1
Let's start with an uncomfortable piece of news:
The customs staff of Dalian Zhoushuizi Airport found a shabby plush doll while inspecting the incoming package.
To tell the truth, this kind of camouflage technique is really not smart, a little experienced people can see that this kind of toy without packaging, two without any collection value, but thousands of miles away from abroad to send, there must be cat greasy.
Sure enough, the staff opened the plush dolls, and then saw a dense 41 insect cocoons inside, each of which contained more than 100 eggs, and some even hatched live insects.
After verification, this bug is the magic flower praying mantis that has become more and more popular in the exotic pet market in recent years.
(Warning: This article involves insect fear, snake fear, all kinds of strange animal and plant fear, psychological endurance of weak small partners, it is recommended to directly draw to the end of the article like. ）
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This wild and uninhibited appearance is not wrong from Africa.
According to Baidu Encyclopedia, the magic flower mantis is the largest of the predatory mantises, with a length of up to 13 centimeters, enjoying the title of "King of Praying Mantises" and one of the rarest praying mantises in the world.
It does come from Africa, and most importantly, it is not distributed in our natural environment and is a genuine invasive species.
Not only is there no distribution, there are no natural enemies.
Mantises with huge bodies, strong predators and no natural enemies, if they flow into the wild, let alone catch cicadas, they can catch birds.
Image source: Fruit Shell Network
And don't look at the praying mantis is a bug, it is a wide-ranging food, in short, it can eat anything, if it flows into the wild and forms a population, what impact it will have on the natural environment, it is really unimaginable.
What is even more unimaginable is that this invasive species under the guise of "exotic pets" has become more and more popular in China in recent years.
A casual search on the Internet can produce a lot of relevant results.
All kinds of marketing articles praise it, "novel", "precious", "beautiful", no one tells you that it is an invasive species.
In Baidu Magic Flower Mantis Sticker Bar, 5 years ago, someone asked where to sell, and some people gave a reply. (Yes, this thing also has a sticker)
There is also an auction, 130 yuan courier fee, sent from Hong Kong and Taiwan to your home.
There are also people who post out-of-box videos on Station B.
A treasure is more effortless, a casual search, out of the relevant words.
Just a newly hatched larvae, more than a hundred yuan a piece.
Others bought it for their children to play with.
Then this expensive "pet" with a lifespan of less than a year will surely be tried to breed at home.
From supply to demand, a chain of interests appears in front of us in its entirety.
Mailing live insects from abroad, importing exotic species are illegal, sellers pretend to be deaf and dumb, buyers are in the dark / do not think so, marketing numbers fan the flames, regulatory platforms stand by and watch, and when the ecological disaster comes a few years later, there must be people who are distressed, but it is too late to say anything.
2
Speaking of which, in the history of biological invasion in our country, the magic flower mantis is at most a small minion (at least so far).
Not to mention the people, even the government, has planted a heel on invasive species.
In the 1970s and 1980s, due to the government's eagerness to develop the economy, people's ecological awareness was not so strong, and many invasive species were used as cash crops and were vigorously introduced to China.
According to the 2019 Bulletin on the State of China's Ecology and Environment, just released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, more than 660 invasive alien species have been found throughout China.
The most well-known of these are the Fushou snail, crayfish and bullfrog.
Fushou snail, native to the Amazon River Basin, in 1980, a farmer in Taiwan brought back a box of Fushou snail eggs from Argentina, and also named it "Jinbao Snail" to promote breeding in the market.
This thing is indeed big, fast-growing, easy to feed, coupled with strange goods, at that time a female snail was called to 800 yuan.
Around 1981, the Fushou snail was introduced to Guangdong and other provinces, and was also widely promoted as a special economic animal.
Later, everyone knew about it, and within a few years, people found its shortcomings: poor meat quality, difficult to cook, many parasites, and even farmers with little biological knowledge knew that Fushou snail was "poisonous".
Fushou snail from a darling to an "abandoned baby", but it is easy to ask God to send God, at this time, the amazing destructive power of Fushou snail is fully displayed, and the advantages of the past as a cash crop have all become original sin.
Too easy to feed, casually thrown in a place with fresh water, you can thrive; exponential explosive reproductive speed, a female snail, a year can become 300,000; see what to eat, not only nibble away at plants, crops, even insects, small fish and even animal carcasses, can be eaten piecemeal...
People are afraid at this time, but it is too late to make up for it, because it has no natural enemies, and even pesticides cannot easily kill it.
Not only that, until now, Fushou snails have been brought to the table by black-hearted merchants in the form of "night supper" from time to time and flowed into the mouths of urban people.
Many people's favorites on the table: crayfish and bullfrogs, left in the wild, are also not good stubble.
Bullfrogs, native to North America, were introduced to China as food in 1959 and within a few decades, spread all over the country.
Many people have a good impression of frogs, thinking that frogs eat pests, but this is only for China's native frogs, in contrast, bullfrogs are not only large, eat more, and eat are not pests.
Like the magic mantis, bullfrogs are also wide-ranging eaters, and adult bullfrogs, as long as they are smaller than them, are almost what they eat. (The picture is not put, a little uncomfortable)
Fish, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians (including other frogs and tadpoles), shrimp, birds and even bats have a hard time escaping the clutches of bullfrogs, but they rarely prey on agricultural pests.
Not only that, bullfrogs have a lot of overlap with native amphibians in their habitats, and in terms of combat effectiveness, native frogs are really inferior to the fierce role of bullfrogs, and even will be wiped out, resulting in local extinction of populations, such as the indigenous people of Dianchi Lake: Dianchi Salamander and Dianchi Frog.
The Dianchi lake salamander has become extinct in the wild
Whenever you see such a delicious invasive species, there are always foodies shouting "eat it until it goes extinct", but in fact, it is really impossible.
When it comes to eating, the most popular invasive species is the crayfish.
Crayfish, scientifically known as protocellfish crawfish, are native to northern Mexico and southern America. In the 1930s, it was introduced to Yunnan as feed.
Then a similar story happened.
Adaptable, wide-ranging, fast reproduction, and love to punch holes, crayfish quickly dominate the local ecosystem, squeezing the living space of native fish and shrimp, if not good and bad and also eaten partly, it is estimated that larger moths can be produced.
Yunnan Heqing Xicaohai Nature Reserve once held a crayfish fishing competition, and some people caught more than 200 kilograms of crayfish in just a few hours.
What is even more ridiculous is that there are always sensational marketing trumpets that talk about the foodie attributes of Chinese, and portray the crayfish as the "most miserable invasive species", "regret coming to China", and "relying on breeding to become extinct", so that many people who do not know the truth underestimate the destructive power of crayfish.
In Yunnan, crayfish have long been characterized as a serious invasive species, and have not been controlled for more than ten years. Farming for economic reasons is one thing, wild farming is another!
What's more, animals such as bullfrogs and crayfish, although the breeding is delicious, but the wild often carries a lot of bacteria and parasites, which are not suitable for eating at all, and eating can not solve the problem of biological invasion.
No matter how good the impression is, how harmless it looks, invasive species are invasive species, and the destructive power to the ecology is amazing.
Without thinking or blind optimism, speculating about nature with a pitifully small brain capacity is the most foolish thing to do.
3
In fact, officials were aware of the dangers of invasive species many years ago.
In recent years, many policies to prevent biological invasions have also been introduced, and the introduction of alien species as cash crops has been greatly reduced, and even if there is, it will be very prudent.
The official biological invasion path is eliminated, however, in the folk, there are always some people who are unscrupulous or ignorant and quietly tempt the edge of danger.
Biological invasions from the people, the most common are pets, and release.
China's laws on the prohibition of alien species are actually very strict, such as inbound passengers are not allowed to carry animals and plants that are prohibited from entering the country, seeds are not allowed to be carried in packages or luggage, etc., and also clearly stipulate species that can be used as pets.
However, from the magic flower praying mantis above, it can also be seen that there are too many examples of all kinds of animals under the banner of alien pets, which are actually forbidden to breed animals.
For example, the yellow fat-tailed scorpion from North Africa.
The yellow fat-tailed scorpion is not only an exotic species, but also a highly poisonous species, and in the deserts of North Africa, many people are poisoned by it every year.
But it is this kind of "novel" and "challenging" animals, who are curious and rich, among them, the most unsafe about the market, some people not only want to raise, but also take pride in getting such a rare "pet", trying to smuggle in.
Of course, there are all kinds of strange spiders.
All kinds of venomous snakes.
The big lizard is no exception.
Sellers know the law, smuggle alien species through various means, and package them as "pets", the price is completely in their hands, cutting leeks; and buyers, in addition to ignorance and fearlessness, really can't see what their "pets" can prove.
In addition to pets, there are all kinds of confusing "release" behaviors.
The Brazilian turtle has long been characterized as a very harmful invasive species, and releasing them is equivalent to mutilating other surrounding species.
Bullfrogs were also released. (Amount of support)
Someone released a snake. (Help)
There is also a crocodile turtle that is marketed as "Xuanwu" by merchants because of its mighty appearance, which is also an exotic species and is very aggressive, releasing it is equivalent to strangling a pool of creatures.
Good men and women, please, don't let go of life.
Whether it is to keep a pet or release it, the original intention is good, but the reality is that no matter how simple or legitimate things seem on the surface, if you don't think about it, the consequences are endless.
4
In our country, there have always been many problems caused by pets, but the problem is that they rarely attract people's attention.
Here, we still have to warn everyone that it is okay to have pets, but it must be responsible.
There are many people who have pets, really out of a whim, the Internet brush two videos, think interesting, cute, just try to get a home, completely did not think, this pet can not be raised, how to raise, how to raise if the follow-up how to deal with.
Don't say that snakes, insects, rats and ants are such exotic pets, even if they are birds that are considered very conventional by many people, they cannot be raised casually.
Few people know that there are only 9 kinds of birds that can be legally kept privately in China, of which only 3 are parrots.
Some birds look cute and upscale, but they are also invasive species and, once in the wild, are plant killers.
Small sunflower cockatoos and iridescent honey-sucking parrots that cannot be bred indiscriminately
Therefore, I advise everyone to think twice about raising pets, and do not casually visit a post, watch a video, brush a treasure to make a decision, and the most important thing is to check the list to see if the animals you want to raise are legal.
In fact, "novelty" and "advanced" are really not so important, they can only satisfy vanity and expose IQ.
After all, we are in China, a country with a lot of land, and there are many legal alien species that have passed the test of time, and there are really no pets, which are non-invasive species.
For example, this:
Ah no...
Can't the legally raised cockrots and broad axe praying mantis satisfy you?
Moreover, even if you have a legal pet, you should also take care of them patiently and responsibly, don't abandon them if you don't have a bad heart, many pets are really not suitable for the wild environment, if it is some dangerous species, it is more likely to threaten the personal safety of others.
As for the behavior of indiscriminate release, it is not to mention that indiscriminate release is no different from killing, and invasive and dangerous species cannot be released. Choose species that are suitable for the local environment, choose an environment suitable for release, otherwise it is just hypocrisy and self-motivation.
Of course, I still feel that the current relevant supervision is too weak.
I hope that the regulatory platform can take action to ban those strange biological invasions, otherwise it will really wait until the time of the disaster is caused and then realize that it will really cry without tears.
It is not easy for anyone in nature, so be a good person.
Text | Poison Brother & Yucheng