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[1984] S02E09: Jet Set Wildlife

This episode focuses on Florida and how, just like humans come to the Sunshine State and thrive in the hot weather, so, too, does every animal dumped into the wild. This includes relatively harmless creatures like proliferating jackrabbits and cross-breeding scarlet ibises, to well-known invasive species like giant toads, Burmese pythons, and African fish. Of particularly funny (in a sad way) use was the two Australian brothers who introduced melaleuca trees because they didn't like Florida's swamps and wanted more timber. Well, melaleuca proliferated and now threatens many native species, as well as being fire-resistant due to its paperlike bark.

Since this is a forty-year-old episode, I decided to look up some of the threats to see how they were faring nowadays. Well, melaleuca is still around and annoying people, and we all know how efforts to curb foreign snakes are going. Formosan termites spread out, too, though not as much as I'd have thought (Louisiana got the worst of it somehow). Rhesus macaques still exist in their little colonies, though most people like 'em, even if they're herpes- and TB-carrying pests for farmers.

Also funny to see that the show puckishly called Mickey Mouse an invasive species, too, for Disney World's attempt at using invasive water hyacinths to purify its sewage. When you think about it, their territory was one small breeding pair on a single steamboat and now it controls much of Florida...

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