There are many classic cartoons in our childhood memories, some of which can be described as "suitable for all ages", which can still bring us happiness, such as "Tom and Jerry", in which tom the cat who "loves and kills" and Jerry the clever little mouse have left a deep impression on us. However, in actual life, we know that the mode of getting along between cats and mice is far less "cute", and it can even be said that "water and fire are incompatible".
After all, in ancient times, the most important reason why people domesticated cats was that they were able to catch rats and protect people's food from being destroyed by rats. To this day, cats in many places still play such a role and are good helpers for humans. However, the changes of the times have also brought about some changes in the way these animals live.
One of the most obvious changes is that the meaning of animals such as cats and dogs for humans has gradually changed from work to companionship, and people in cities mostly raise cats or dogs not to make them have any "role", but to hope that they can accompany themselves and bring some comfort to a busy life. For example, many breeds of dogs were originally bred as hounds or sheepdogs, but where do urbanites need to hunt and shepherd now?
This is especially true of cats, which are now almost no longer "working" for humans in the city. However, for mice, many cats still have a natural deterrent, even if there is no intention to attack, it will make the mouse afraid. So, if the cat is really like in the cartoon, what will be the reason for being "bullied" by the mouse?
The development of civilization has a long process. As humans gradually began to settle down, we also had a lot of domesticated animals around us, some of which were more like "mutual help" relationships with humans than "food" in captivity, such as cats and dogs. Since there are "life partners" we need, there will naturally be "life partners" that we don't need, such as mice attracted by the abundance of human food.
Rats infiltrate every aspect of human life, such as destroying our crops in the countryside and sneaking into granaries to eat human harvests; in cities, the scraps of restaurants, the food in garbage heaps, and the food stored in our kitchens are their food sources.
Rats have strong fecundity and vitality, as well as flying cornices and walls, and the "unique skills" of hauntings. Therefore, even if people hate it deeply, there is no way to really eliminate them all. Rats not only eat our food, they also chew on our belongings, as do those that have nothing to do with food, because rodents have to grind their teeth all the time.
In addition, rats also have one of the most vexing bad effects, that is, the transmission of the virus. Rats have a variety of viruses, and rats living in the city often haunt dirty places such as garbage dumps, and they carry more germs with them. Therefore, if we find that food has come into contact with rats, we must not eat it again, and there must be no luck.
The effects of rats on human health are not alarmist, this tiny animal once changed the course of world history. One of the most terrible catastrophes of the European Middle Ages was the outbreak of the Black Death, a plague that lasted for years and killed tens of millions of people in Europe, accounting for a third of the population, and people were helpless against this menacing disease.
Now we know that this disease is actually the plague, which is carried by rats and eventually transmitted to humans through animals such as fleas. But people at that time did not know anything about this, and did not know that these small animals that were everywhere in life were the culprits who took people's lives. To this day, if we come into contact with wild rodents, we are also at risk of contracting plague, so it is important to pay attention.
Although the Black Death objectively gave birth to the Renaissance, for those who were in the midst of the plague, rats brought only pain and fear. Finding a way to eliminate this creature has become the consensus of human beings, no matter which corner of the world people, for thousands of years have been engaged in a "offensive and defensive war" between humans and rats.
With the development of science and technology, we can basically control the number of rats today, at least not in large numbers in our own homes. However, in one country in the world, this small creature is still rampant, bringing many troubles and pains to people's lives, and this country is Australia.
In our impression, rats generally haunt places that are more "dirty and messy", so that they can provide them with enough food on the one hand, and enough space for them to live and reproduce on the other hand. Australia is a relatively developed country, why do rats flood it?
The reason for this is also very simple, because the rat is not a native species in Australia. The Australian continent has been separated from other continents since ancient times, so the creatures here have embarked on a "independent development" path, and many species are completely absent from other places, such as koalas, kangaroos and so on. Similarly, many of our common creatures did not exist in Australia, and rats are one of them.
Rats came to Australia in the footsteps of humans, and some speculate that the original rats may have originated from trading ships, and they quickly adapted to the climate and began to multiply and multiply, in increasing numbers. Why are rats here "out of control"?
Because there are almost no natural enemies of rats here. Rats are food for many animals in nature, such as snakes, owls, foxes, cats, etc., and these animals control the overall number of rats in the wild so that they do not flood. However, Australia does not have these beasts of prey, and there are relatively few other predators. Rats come here like "fish in the water".
In addition to its own ecology, Australia is also a sparsely populated place, where humans can control very limited places at all times, rats are notoriously "haunted", and it is quite difficult to catch rats by hand. In recent years, many parts of Australia have been plagued by rat infestation, with New South Wales being the most severe.
The capital of the state is Sydney, one of the most developed and well-known Australian cities. But it is such a developed metropolis that has become a place "besieged" by rats. How serious is the rat infestation here? Even the fish's stomach is full of rat bones! Rats are mostly able to swim, but they become food for fish, and you can imagine how terrifying the numbers are.
Because of its unique natural environment, Australia has always been a place that is very vulnerable to biological invasion, such as the fact that it was once invaded by a large number of hares, and people have taken various methods to kill hares. However, compared with rats, hares can only destroy the living environment of grasslands and other animals, and rat flooding can really bring fatal blows, and may even bring another plague outbreak.
You may think that we now have a way to treat plague, but don't forget that the virus is also mutating and evolving at any time, if we encounter a mutated plague virus, how to control it?
The best way to do this is naturally to prevent problems before they occur and control the number of rats. But this is a simple matter that is difficult to do, australia can only rely on complete manual intervention to exterminate rats, and the things that can be done are very limited. So, why not raise cats to kill rats?
In fact, cats are far less deterrent to rats than we think, and in the case of too many rats, domestic cats will even be bullied by rats. And compared to the flexible small animals such as mice, cats prefer to catch wild birds, slow-moving small mammals, etc., which will make Australia's ecological environment "worse".
Since the method of raising cats does not work, what should people do? The answer is also very simple, that is, the administration of rodenticide. It only takes a short time to kill a large number of rats in those places where rats are infested, and then the carcasses of these rats are uniformly incinerated and buried to prevent the spread of various germs.
To control the rat population, the NSW Government has specifically procured and distributed around 5,000 litres of bromodiron, a chemical known as one of the most potent rat poisons in the world. In the face of such a powerful "poison", will the rat lose the battle?
Human beings face the "anger" of nature at any time, but the rat plague can be said to be human beings "self-inflicted", after all, this is a man-made biological invasion. Perhaps in the future, we will face more similar ecological disasters, so we need to pay attention to all aspects, and we cannot let our natural environment lose balance, otherwise we will be the ones who will suffer the bitter consequences in the end.
Just like in order to eliminate hares, foxes and wolves introduced from Australia eventually became invasive species, and it was the innocent native species that were eventually "injured". Will Australian cats become such dangerous creatures in the future? The situation is already quite unoptimistic.
The problem of biological invasion is not only a problem in Australia, we see that Australia is particularly serious because the ecological environment here is relatively special, in fact, other parts of the world will be plagued by the problem of invasive species, and China is no exception. Nowadays, the Fushou snail and Brazilian turtle that we often see in the river are actually not native species in China, but they have obviously "taken root and sprouted" on the land of Our country and have become a problem that is difficult to eradicate.
When introducing a species, we must pay attention to its impact on the natural environment on the one hand, and on the other hand, we must also pay attention not to easily put it from the artificial breeding environment to the wild environment, which is endlessly harmful.
People are now aware of the harm of this behavior, but mistakes have been made, and the problem of many invasive species can no longer be solved, just as many of the damage we have caused to the environment is irreversible.
At present, human beings still have only one homeland, the earth, and we absolutely cannot arbitrarily destroy nature because of temporary interests, after all, these evil consequences still have to be borne by human beings themselves in the end. Therefore, we must be more kind to our homeland and let our civilization continue.