if humans are animals, why is it a bad thing that we carry “invasive” species to different places? and why are they considered to be invasive things we need to get rid of?

Question

NOTE: i am in no way saying carrying invasive species around isn’t bad/harmful! it very much is a big issue. i am just a bit lost on how humans (being animals) are doing “incorrect” unnatural things since we are natural(compared to other living things who don’t necessarily harm their environment)

okay, so i don’t really understand the whole invasive species thing. when humans carry plants/animals to different regions and they start rapidly growing there, why do we need to get rid of them? humans are animals as well (great apes), and a way that seeds/eggs spread is by grabbing onto other animals as they travel. so why is it different when people do it? i’m just confused

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Answer 1

A lot of people have given some very good examples of how invasive species can lead to a loss of biodiversity. One thing that also plays a part in why we control invasive species is the cost. Some species are capable of doing billions of dollars of damage once they get established. For example, the zebra mussel and the quagga mussel are invasive species found throughout lakes and reservoirs of the U.S. They form incredibly dense colonies and can clog pipes, damage infrastructure, and boats. Keeping pipes free from the mussels takes a lot of time, energy, and money. If water can’t get to where it needs to go, that isn’t an optional problem. It must be addressed.

Another good example is cheat grass, it’s an invasive species of grass found throughout the western U.S. It has very little nutritional value, so wildlife and livestock end up having less food, but cheat grass also loves fire. Cheat grass burns like nothing else and it re-establishes after a fire very quickly. A healthy landscape would have a diverse mix of grasses with some more adapted to summer conditions and some doing better in spring or fall. The ability of cheat grass to push out this diverse mix of grass and completely take over means the species that rely on those native grasses have now lost everything they need to survive. Instead, we now have a landscape that is a much higher fire risk and fighting fires is very expensive.