Is that a golden dahlia daffodilus?

Today, I started working on research on pest management for an upcoming policy paper that the Society will be releasing. For those of you who do not know, there are a lot of animals, plants, and diseases that have been introduced to New Zealand throughout the past hundreds of years. Some of these introduced species have produced a negative impact on the country’s native flora, fauna, etc. As a result, there has been an ongoing quest to contain/control/eradicate these invasive species so that New Zealand’s environment, people, and culture (as the unique ecology of New Zealand is very much part of its culture) can be maintained.

That’s basically what I know about the issue right now, and in the upcoming days as I delve into hundreds of journal articles about pest management I am sure I will become more academic about the entire topic. As a result, I want to get the silliness out of my system before I think what I am going to post below is ridiculous.

I see myself contributing through this research to the eventual eradication of harmful species to New Zealand. As such, here are just a few of my enemies that I will face in my quest.

Exhibit 1: Oryctolagus cuniculus. European Rabbit. These bad boys eat the grass that cows need in New Zealand to survive. Also, when they breed like crazy they can start to burrow and erode the soil and mess up water stuff. In the past, they have been shot, poisoned, their burrows have been fumigated, and rabbit-proof fences have been erected.

oryctolagus cuniculus: cow killer

Exhibit 2: Mustela furo. Possum. The Ministry for Primary Industries is updating information on the possum, which must be good… but to put it into perspective, there are more possums in New Zealand than there are people in Canada.

looks like me when i wake up in the morning

Exhibit 3: Mustela erminea. Stoat. Pretty sure this one is already stuffed, but they are pesky too. Kind of like smaller ferrets… which is also an unwanted organism, but the ferret populations have been controlled.

stoats can actually be kind of cute but a cute picture would have ruined the effect

Exhibit 4: Trichoglossus haematodus. Rainbow Lorikeet. Yeah, I didn’t even have to Google “evil [insert animal name here]” for this one. They naturally look like they’re gonna mess you up.

"did u say sumthin 2 me?"

Exhibit 5: Lampropholis delicate. Rainbow skink. Basically this one came from Australia and the only reason it’s unwanted is because it competes with New Zealand’s native skink. That’s a whole other story though. Also, skink is going to be my new insult word (e.g. “you’re such a skink!”).

what sound do skinks make i wonder

Exhibit 6: Periplaneta americana. The cockroach. On the plus side, IT’S TIME FOR REVENGE! (For those of you out of the loop, see here for my cockroach experiences.)

this is a cockroach preparing to cook up your body once it kills you in the night

So those are just a select few species that I will be learning about and reading case studies from around the world in an attempt to control them within delicate New Zealand. All in all, I feel like Rabbit trying to keep his garden free of pests. Ironic since rabbits are on "the list," but appropriate nonetheless.

Post-script: I think that someone should think of renaming this unwanted organism. I'm not sure if the ministry in charge has realized the historical implications that come with "eradiction of Wandering Jews." Just a thought.