Be careful, don't be fooled by the cute appearance of the broomstick. This is a creepy time bomb.

Image from: ARKIVE

When I went to New Zealand in 2004, it was 16 years, but some things were forgotten.

In early August, New Zealand in the southern hemisphere was in severe winter. Our delegation left Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island, on a Kauste station wagon and started a popular science tour in New Zealand. Driving for us was explained by a Taiwan Province native in his fifties, surnamed Chen, Flying Tiger, whose ancestral home was Yancheng, Jiangsu, and a descendant of national army veterans. It's almost ten years since he immigrated here.

The picture is from Wikipedia.

Mr. Chen's service is sincere, and he told many stories about local customs and historical sites along the way. This was introduced by Lu from England. This is where the Lord of the Rings was filmed. That year, Clinton visited Clinton Town, a small town with only 200 people ... He even invited us to eat three fresh fish and took us to buy fruit and sheep oil at reasonable prices ... This made us deeply feel that Taiwan Province Province and the mainland were "in the same car".

Traveling southbound along the eastern route, sometimes in parallel with the only railway in the South Island, and sometimes in the face of stormy waves, I sat in the passenger seat that people thought was the most dangerous. I remember when I left, Teacher Chen asked: How dare you sit in this position? I said, I believe in your skills. In fact, I am not not not afraid, but curiosity overcomes fear.

Image from: ARKIVE

Sitting in the front row of the car, you can not only ask Mr. Chen for advice at any time, but also catch things that attract your attention one by one, especially all kinds of animals: cattle and sheep surrounded by columns, horses in vests, alpacas imported from South America, red deer in large-scale captivity, Australian magpies that look like crows, pairs of black-breasted ducks (translated into paradise ducks by us at that time), black swans with enchanting red mouths, and even rabbits and bluebirds that chase and fight.

But what surprises me most is that on the highway, I can always see small animals run over by cars, including rabbits, eagles and hedgehogs. The animals that have been run over are more of what Mr. Chen called "civets". When Mr. Chen said it was a civet, I was puzzled. How did the Asian civet cat get to this island country in the southern hemisphere?

If there are so many civets in New Zealand, they must be very nervous when SARS breaks out. But why haven't you heard of it? From the remains of those animals, I can see that their faces are not flowery and their tails are not long, unlike civet cats. I looked up a limited number of reference books from what they called "pao raccoon" in English. At that time, we mistakenly translated it as "opossum", but we can confirm that it is a marsupial. Along the way, I asked about this strange animal almost everywhere. It can be said that it was not until the last stop of the inspection-Auckland Museum that I basically understood the ins and outs of this animal.

It turns out that this is an animal of Sabina introduced from Australia. It is 32-58 cm long and weighs about 2-5 kg. It is brown-black, with dense gray fluff, big snout, fox-like face, long curly tail, and broom-like hair in the second half of the tail, hence its name. Tasmanian sable with broom tail is the most common marsupial in Australia, which is distributed in the north, southeast, southwest and Tasmania. Mainly at night, foraging for fruits and leaves of various plants, catching insects and small animals, and hiding in tree holes, bushes or rabbit holes during the day.

The earliest introduction time was 1800, probably because there were few individuals in the population and it was not successful. 1858, reintroduced successfully. During the period of 1890- 1900, people made another effort to attract 200-300 animals from Australia and Tasmania, most of which were released in the South Island, and a few were placed in the southern tip of the North Island, slightly north of Wellington. At that time, people introduced alien species to New Zealand again and again for economic purposes. As a hunting animal and fur animal, this kind of small animal, which is easy to catch and poses no threat to people, is loved by people and protected by law. In fact, in some shops in New Zealand, we can also see socks made of mink hair. I even heard that people still eat this animal in the west of South Island. However, whether people eat it, get run over by a car or shoot it with a shotgun, they can't stop the growth of the broom handle. Maybe in China, they will die like civets.

In New Zealand, where there are a lot of people and few resources, the utilization of marsupials with broomsticks is far less rapid than their own reproduction. In this land without natural enemies, this extremely fertile animal is growing and erupting. In less than a century, it has spread all over the country, reaching 70 million, with an average of 0/7 per New Zealander, while there are only 40 million sheep in their country, with an average of 654,307.

Every saber with broomstick tail eats 300 grams of fruits and leaves of plants every night, so about 20,000 tons of plants are eaten by broomstick tail sabers every day in New Zealand, which is not only a huge threat to plants, livestock and deer industry, but also eats and occupies the living space of many local species, bringing tuberculosis ... God, it is easy to send information to God. People first introduced sabers with broomsticks, tails and tails to "see their advantages but not their disadvantages".

Extended reading:

Since the broom was introduced to New Zealand, it has cleaned the buds and fruits of plants, as well as eggs and young birds. Due to the lack of natural enemies, the number of marsupials has increased dramatically. It will also bring bovine tuberculosis to the local animal husbandry and become a local disaster. Since 1990s, the government has issued a bill to control the number of marsupials. By 2009, there were still 30 million marsupials living on two islands in New Zealand.

About the author

Researcher of Beijing Elk Ecological Center and Beijing Biodiversity Conservation Center, and vice chairman of the Association for Science and Technology of Beijing Academy of Science and Technology. He has won more than 20 national advanced science popularization workers and published works, and won many awards. He was awarded the title of "Excellent Popular Science Writer" by China Popular Science Writers Association, and was awarded the title of "Beijing Model" by Beijing Municipal Government on 20 19.