Species jumping
Species jumping is one of the scenarios being postulated for the spread of Mad Cow disease into Canada. Reuters points out that deer and elk, which commonly come into contact with cattle herds, are increasingly stricken by a disease similar to mad cow called chronic wasting disease spread though the proliferation of game farms. The existence of this disease in Alberta has led some to wonder whether it could have jumped to domestic cattle although scientists’ have failed in their own attempts to achieve that transmission.
David Theodoropoulus, an inveterate conservation biologist and ‘otaku’ ethnobotanist, seed merchant has written an amazing book entitled “Invasion Biology: Critique of A Pseudoscience” in which he very eloquently takes on the basic ecological notion that ‘exotic’ species are destroying the planet’s ecosystems. We’ve all heard of the deleterious effects of the rabbits in Australia and introduced goats and pigs eating the giant tortoise’s eggs on the Galapagos, but Theodoropoulos, argues that the real damage is caused by the destruction of habitat by humans which allows the exotics to do damage. He shows that in many cases exotic organisms like zebra mussels and eucalyptus actually act to increase local biodiversity. I was sure that I would disagree with this seemingly heretical premise but he makes a very convincing arguement in this book. People have always been moving plants and animals around and many of the trees that are now classed as exotic to North America were quite common here before glaciation such as Gingko biloba, Metasequoia etc. Theodoropoulus critiques ‘biological nativism’ as a kind of eco-fascism which became prevalent during Nazi Germany as a form of ecological ethnic cleansing, citing Robert Jay Lifton , (author of the seminal “Nazi Doctors”)
