BACK STORY - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 28

thing, a significant difference between the imposition of the European biota on
the rest of the world, and the transfer of exotic animals and plants to the homeland
(whether inherited or adopted). And for another, the enterprise of acclimatization
is much more likely to demonstrate the limitations of human control of nature
than the reverse—whether the targets of acclimatization shrivel and die, or
whether they reproduce with unanticipated enthusiasm. Already in the nineteenth
century, introduction of exotic plants and animals could be seen as a kind of
Pandora's box, at least when they were imported into Europe or heavily
Europeanized colonies or ex-colonies. For example, to return to eastern North
America, the Society for the Protection of Native Plants (now the New England
Wild Flower Society) was founded in 1900, in order to 'conserve and promote
the region's native plants'. 14 It was the first such organization in the United States,
but in the intervening century societies with similar goals have been established
across the continent. The commitment to preserve native flora and fauna from the
encroachment of aliens marked a turn, conscious or otherwise, from offense to
defense—perhaps in the American context, to be read in conjunction with the
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or the more comprehensive Immigration Act of
1924. And of course the American context was not the only relevant one, in the
nineteenth century or later; elsewhere the defense of the native would become
still more strenuous.
Notes
1 A shorter version of this chapter was originally published as 'Going Forth and Multiplying:
Animal Acclimatization and Invasion', in Environmental History 17 (2012), 404-414.
2 Bulliet (1990) gives a definitive account of the integration of camel transport into the
economies and societies of the Middle East and North Africa.
3 See Woodbury, 'U.S. Camel Corps remembered in Quartzsite, Arizona' Out West (2003).
4 See Schmidt, 'Civic Leaders Planning Reforms for Atlanta Zoo' (1984), New York Times
(August 28 1984).
5 For an image of the medal, see: http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/76618/
medal-acclimatisation-society-of-victoria-bronze-australia-1868.
6 Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, First Annual Report (1862), 8, 39 and Sixth Annual
Report (1868), pp. 29-30; South Australian Zoological and Acclimatization Society,
Seventh Annual Report (1885), 7; Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, Third Annual Report
(1864), p. 30 and Fifth Annual Report (1867), p. 25.
7 'Camels Australia Export', available at: http://www.camelsaust.com.au/history.htm
(accessed March 30 2011); 'A Brief History of Camels in Australia', based on Strategies for
Development (1993) prepared by the Camel Industry Steering Committee for the Northern
Territory Government, available at: http://camelfarm.com/camels/camels_australia.
html.
8 'Australia: the world's largest camel population', Meat Trade News Daily , 5 September
2010. Available at: http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/100910/australia___
the_worlds_largest_camel_population_.aspx (accessed May 18 2012); 'Camel fact sheet',
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2009. Available at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/publications/camel-factsheet.
html (accessed May 18, 2012).
9 'A million camels plague Australia', National Geographic News , October 26 2009. Available
at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091026-australia-camels-video-
ap.html (accessed March 30 2011).