Out of Eden

Since the weather isn’t great, I am having a lazy day. This morning I made myself a mug of coffee and then curled up in bed with a book and listened to the sounds of rain. Out of Eden by Alan Burdick looks into invasive species. From the brown tree snake to the zebra mussel, humans are responsible for transporting organisms faster and farther than they have been able to go in the past. Can we predict what impacts these species will have? 

Front and Back cover of the book!

The brown tree snake is blamed for the extinction of several birds in Guam. Today the focus is on preventing its spread to another chain of islands – Hawaii. It will most likely get there someday, either in a crate on a shipping vessel or stowed away on airplane. The probability is in the snakes favor. The million dollar question is; what will happen when it does? There have been several well studied systems where species have been introduced (intentionally and unintentionally) and we still are awful at figuring out how the ecosystem will change.

The first third of the book gave me the hebe jeebies because it was all about snakes. Big brown tree snakes. These snakes are nocturnal (so you rarely see them) and have been caught in cribs trying to eat infants hands. EWWW! Luckily, the book moved to other animals and the third of the book really interested me because the author followed aquatic biologists looking into the transport of little aquatic critters. The zebra mussel is a famous example in the Great Lakes of an introduced species. Across the worlds bays though there are hundreds.

Towards the end of the book, the author raises an interesting question. Does nature need to be pristine for humans to enjoy it? Do we care if the wild around us ends up being identical world wide? While I am not too big of a philosophical person, it certainly is interesting. Species are constantly on the move. Does it really matter if we have sped the process up? I think so. If I ever make it to Madagascar or go back to Australia, I would certainly be disappointed if I saw only the same animals that we have in the mid-west United States...