Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Guam Department of Agriculture now requires nursery shipments from Hawaii to be
treated prior to export, so as to kill any hitch-hiking frogs, and to be temporarily
quarantined upon arrival in Guam. As seen for the United States, there appear to be
no broader assessments of herpetological risks to Guam or to the European Union.
More comprehensive or systematic import restrictions against herpetofauna
apply in only a few jurisdictions known to me. For example, New Zealand prohibits
importation of animals for which they have not established an explicit import
policy. Reptiles and amphibians lack such policies; hence, they are prohibited by
default. Australia has similar laws, banning the importation of all reptiles and
amphibians except for permitted scientific and educational uses. Taiwan also bans
the importation of reptiles as pets. Hawaii lies somewhere between the extremes
presented by the United States and the austral nations: it allows importation of a set
of several dozen species that are approved for commercial sale, it permits several
dozen additional species for use by scientific and educational institutions, and it
bans all remaining species. In this instance, there is no clear scientific rationale or
objective decision-making process for determining which species are included on
which list, but there is at least the general application of a precautionary approach.
Both New Zealand and Hawaii have explicit legislative prohibition of snake
imports, reflecting recognition gained from the brown treesnake of the danger these
animals can pose to island faunas. These are the only jurisdictions of which I am
aware that take a more general precautionary approach to alien reptiles and amphibians,
although I acknowledge that there may well be other examples elsewhere of
which I am unaware. My intent is not to present a comprehensive review of
importation restrictions but merely to show the range of options available and to
illustrate the fact that explicit preventive attention to alien reptiles and amphibi-
ans is rare. This poor preventive response can not be viewed as surprising inas-
much as the impacts attending herpetological invasions are not yet widely
appreciated, even among invasion biologists. Such ignorance makes import
restrictions politically infeasible in most jurisdictions. That Australia, New
Zealand, and Hawaii have escaped that bind no doubt reflects heightened sensi-
tivity to alien invasions gained by their extensive tragic experiences with them.
It seems likely that most other countries have responded even less to the issue
than have the United States and European Union.
Eradication
Attempts to rapidly eradicate recent incursions of alien herps have met with little
success to date. A few exceptions exist, however. The best-documented case
concerns the Australian frog
Limnodynastes dumerilii
, tadpoles of which were
privately reared in captivity from an egg mass found in northern New Zealand
in 1999. The individual possessing the frogs soon brought his discovery to the
attention of biosecurity officials. Within two months of the discovery, officials had
surveyed for eggs, tadpoles, and calling adults in all catchments of the mountain
