Alien species are taking over nature. Rogue rats are running amok on remote islands, predatory crayfish are cruising English rivers, Japanese knotweed is strangling South Wales, water hyacinth is choking the tropics and snakehead fish are wriggling across America. It is scary. Our modern world of globalised trade is giving footloose species many more chances to cruise the planet and set up home in distant lands. They are taking those chances – hitchhiking in our hand luggage, hiding in cargo holds or being discharged from ballast tanks. Conservationists believe these biological adventurers are becoming a cancerous growth on native ecosystems. Wildlife managers are making huge efforts to...
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