American media: Scholars found that foreign pigs became the object of predation, and saved Australian endangered crocodiles

[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Foreign invasion species will threaten local species and destroy the local ecological environment. Everyone understands this principle. Wild pigs, as foreign species, have made great achievements in Australia for saltwater crocodile.

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The New York Times reported on the 16th that Australian scholars have found that wild boars, as foreign species, have become the targets of the Australian salt water crocodile. As an important source of food, it has played an important role in the survival of salted water crocodiles. At the end of the 1970s, the Australian saltwater crocodiles were endangered, and the number of salted crocodiles in northern Australia is estimated to have returned to about 100,000. Wild pigs landed in Australia at the end of the 18th century with European colonists, and then quickly breed allocation in Australia. It is conservatively estimated that there are currently 24 million wild boars in Australia. Researchers pointed out that if there were wild boars as a source of food, the number of salted water crocodiles in Australia would be difficult to recover so fast. Compared with other animals with agile operations, wild boars drinking water on the shore are more likely to be prefeted by crocodiles. Relevant studies have confirmed for the first time that the arrival of a large number of invasive species can benefit top predators in a certain area.

In addition, the researchers also found that the crocodile predatory wild boar also helps to control the number and distribution of wild boars, so that wild boars cannot invade the area that they have not involved through the waterway, thereby preventing the regional ecology from being destroyed by wild boars. (Zhen Xiang)

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