Out of Africa & into the Sunshine State : tracking an exotic invader
Name
866585101-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
2.16 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c63f1e53a7eb41f88efdac4e3e38440d
Author(s)
Weeks, Erin Maureen
Advisor(s)
Marcia Bartusiak.
Alternative Title
Out of Africa and into the Sunshine State : tracking an exotic invader
Date Issued
2013
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This is the story of an invasive species and one man's quest to eradicate it. The Nile monitor lizard (Varanus niloticus), smaller cousin of the famed Komodo dragon, grows into six feet of carnivorous, ill-tempered muscle. The animal's size and aggression make it a poor candidate for the exotic pet trade, but the species nevertheless obtained popularity in the 1990s. Two decades later, the descendants of released Nile monitors are breeding in the coastal town of Cape Coral, Florida, where the lizards benefit from extensive drainage canals and a buffet of native wildlife-and they're spreading. Herpetologist Todd Campbell has devoted more than a decade of his research to these reptiles, attempting to understand how they got here, how their invasion is wreaking havoc on native ecosystems, and most of all, how to eliminate them for good. The challenges he's faced along the way echo the wider concerns of fighting invasive species, which represent one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity and ecosystems but are poorly studied and rarely prioritized. This thesis follows the trajectory of the Nile monitor from its native Africa to southern Florida, exploring what it is about this lizard's natural history, ecology, and allure to reptile enthusiasts that has made it a charismatic symbol of the perils of biological invasion.
Description
Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 26-33).
Subjects
Comparative Media Studies.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing
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