- A
- B
- C
Listen to a lecture in a biology class, take detailed notes while listening.
decimate – to completely destroy
import – to bring something that is found or produced in one country into another country
native – belonging to a particular place by birth
opportunistic – taking advantage of any opportunity
reduce – to lessen
Fill in the following diagram.
Couse:
1.
Effect 1:
2.
Effect 2:
3.
Now answer the questions using your notes.
Importing the Mongoose
Summarize the text using your notes and diagram.
- 1: People imported mongoose to Hawaii and Jamaica, believing it would eat rats.
- 2: Mongoose did not reduce the rat population.
- 3: It hunted and threatened native species.
Listen again:
M1: There's a [clear throat], sorry about that... there's a long history of humans introducing plant and anirnal species into environments where they're not native. Such experimentation often has unintended results. The introduction of the Small Asian Mongoose to Jamaica and Hawaii is one such example. Does anyone remember why this animal was introduced to these places? Jenny?
W: To control the rat populations. People wanted to grow sugar cane, and they were having problems with rats eating their crops. So they imported the mongoose because it hunts rats.
M1: Exactly. And did the introduction of the mongoose reduce the numbers of rats?
M2: No, not really. They ate the rats, but not enough to really reduce the population.
M2: Right. What happened was something entirely different from what the importers had predicted. See, the mongoose is a very efficient little predator, They are opportunistic and will hunt and eat whatever small animal they can catch: crabs, frogs, snakes, birds, and so on.
W: So they don't just eat rats, do they?
M3: Uh-uh. They eat whatever is easiest to catch. So here's what happened. They didn't have any natural predators in Jamaica and Hawaii so the mongoose populations grew quickly. What did all those hungry mongooses eat? Whatever they could catch. As a result, the non-native mongooses decimated many small native animal species. The mongoose was particularly dangerous to ground-nesting birds. They nearly killed off the Hawaiian goose, Other bird species, like Newell's shearwaters, were not as lucky. They are now extinct.
