4/19/2014
Made here in the U.S.A
Extracting extreme
creatures and inserting exotic examples onto our earth. What specific species
can places like Jordan, Australia, and South Africa share with the five states
of the Southwestern United States. My Project is to research what species one
could possibly introduce to the Southwestern United States.
Table of Contents.
o Background research.
o Ideas for future research.
o Acknowledgments.
STATE
|
LAND
|
CURRENT
STATE
|
TEMPERATURE
|
PRECIPITATION
|
Texas
|
1. East Texas
2. Golf of Texas
3. Rio Grande
4. Blackland Prairies
5. High Lands
6. West Texas
|
1. Pine covered hills, cypress swamps. Cotton
industry.
2. Citrus fruit. Industrial.
3. 11 habitates! 95% built over!
4. tall grasslands prairies, woodlands,
savanna
5. more further down
6. more further down
|
North Texas (76.5 F-54.75
F)
South Central Texas (81.5
F-58.6 F)
East Texas
(76.29F-54.57F)
Golf Texas
(80.56F-62.89F)
West Texas (77F-51.375F)
Overall Average
(78.37F-56.437F)
|
29.285 inches
more at…
|
Oklahoma
|
1. High Planes
2. Gypsum Hill
3. Wichita Mt.
4. Red Bed
5. Sandstone
6. Arbucklie Mt.
7. Ouachita
8. Prairies Plains
|
1. Grassland
2. Gypsum stone
3. Just a Mt.
4. Forest
5. Hilly forest
6. Roughest Mt.
7. Narrow valley
8. Fertile plains, agriculture
|
-24.8-93.9 F
more at…
|
1. >20in
2. ~25in
3. ~30in
4. ~30in
5. ~40in
6. ~40in
7. ~40in
8. 50in
9. ~45in
10. <45in
|
New Mexico
|
Rio Grande valley
Sonoran Desert
|
Rio Grande valley used
for irrigated agriculture and cattle ranging.
|
22.3-92.8 F
|
36.5 inches
|
Arizona
|
Sonoran Desert
|
Mostly not used
|
70-80 F
|
25-30 inches
|
Rio Grande valley of Texas has wetlands, riparian forest and Tamaulipan thorn forest. It has been written, “The Rio Grande Valley of
South Texas is not a valley, but a delta or floodplain containing many oxbow lakes
or Resaca’s formed from pinched-off
meanders in earlier courses of the Rio Grande. Early 20th-century land
developers, attempting to capitalize on unclaimed land, utilized the name “Magic Valley” to attract settlers and appeal to investors.” Quoted from the RGV
Business YP Directory, Community and Event Calendar.
The plants that grow in the
so called “Magic Valley” include:
1.
agarita
2.
hackberry
3.
bladderpod
4.
honey
mesquite
5.
bristlegrass
6.
silverleaf
nightshade
7.
juniper
8.
skunkbush
9.
bumelia
10.
little
barley
11.
catnip
noseburn
12.
tasajillo
13. croton
|
14.
lotebush
15.
texas
cup grass
16.
ephedra
17.
milk
vetch
18.
evening
primrose
19.
walnut
20.
filaree
21.
pecan
22.
white
tridens
23.
gaura,
pigeonberry
24.
wild
mercury
25.
plantago
26. wild onion
|
27.
ground-cherry
28.
prickly
pear
29.
beggar-tick
30.
polytaenia
31.
groundsel
prickly pear
32.
hackberry
sida
33.
condalia
34.
honey
mesquite
35.
smallflower
corydalis
36.
lantana,
\stiffstem flax
37.
lime
prickly ash
38.
Texas
grass
39. Dropseed
|
40.
milk
pea
41.
Texas
virgin's bower
42.
Euphorb
43.
oak
acorns
44.
wild
tobacco
45.
false
dandelion
46.
palafoxia
47.
flat
sedge
48.
Yellow
wood sorrel
49.
Granjeno
50.
Paspalum
51.
Grape
52. Pinnate tansy mustard.
|
Most of these are not “native” to Texas. What’s the big
deal? Rio Grande Valley is the most fertile part of the southwest, this places
a limit to the species one can introduce without crowding out or even
exterminating existing ones.
High Plains of Texas receive about 23-35
inches of waterfall annually. Wherever you find an oasis you will also find mesquite
wood and Junipers growing there. In this area, the earth is typically made up
of alkaline soils, mostly covered with grass lands. The natives had, and the
locals continued, a tradition of burning which killed native and invading
species. Suddenly the tradition ended and now the High Plains is growing a
vast forest of native juniper trees.
West Texas includes eight
major mountains, which average around 8,000 ft. In this area, the earth is composed
mostly of sand and gravel deposits. Mostly treeless plains with an occasional
Shin oak, Mesquite, and Sandssages. There also exists the Pinyon pine, alligator
juniper, and the gray oak; this area is the least
fertile.
The Ouachita Forest is (1.8 million acres) in
Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. The forest is managed for various exploits,
including wood production, habitat for wildlife, watershed protection, minerals, and wilderness area management.
REGIONS
|
LAND
|
CURRENT
|
AVG.
TEMP
|
ANNUAL
PRECIPIT-ATION
|
Jordan
|
1.
Jordan Valley
2.
Mountain Heights Plateau,
3.
Badia region.
|
1.
fertile plains,agriculture.
2.
mediterranean like.
3.
desert with occasional oasis.
|
18°C.
|
~ 50 millimeters
|
South Africa (and micronations)
|
1.
forest
2.
fynbos
3.
grassland
4.
nama karoo
5.
savanna
6.
succulent karoo
7.
thickets
|
arable land: 12.08%
permanent crops: 0.79%
other: 87.13%
|
11.3 ºC - 2.8 ºC.
|
2.275 inches
|
South Australia
|
1.
murray-darling basin
2.
great victoria desert
3.
nullarbor plain
4.
simspon desert
|
livestock grazing, forestry, dryland agriculture.
|
summer 25-30°C
winter
5-10°C
|
100 inches
|
1.
Analyze at least seven species,
from each of the four environments. Alien species of suspicious environment
outside of the country and organize the species according to the environments
precipitation levels as well as their niche.
2.
Locate each of the seven
alien species most plausible environment. See if some American species can be
replaced with a foreign species with the same niche.
Jerboas are desert
mice that are
found from the
Gobi desert to
the North of
Africa, Jordan being dead
center. The mouse species
can handle nights
near zero, and
days of up to 130 F. The mouse consumes plants, seeds,
and insects. The hoping animal gets
all its water from the food it eats. The mouse
has a charming
way of
moving as seen here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YUunxkxr60. The mouse is difficult to
study; spending most of its life 18 inches underground. It tunnels and can live
a solitary life but some prefer to build
several connected tunnels to live in a
colony of Jerboas. The tunnels having a soil cap to camouflage it. Jerboas may
hibernate if the winters are too harsh. The hopping animals are perfectly
adaptable for America. Jerboas are no rats, the females give birth three times
a year and the young are independent around 14 weeks. The Jerboas hop their way
through the deserts and live in the wild for about six years. All these numbers
are cut in half for rats, living half as long in the wilderness and half as
many weeks with the family. Furthermore, rats need to ingest water and cannot
live off of the water in their food as the only source of liquid. These hopping
animals actually feed many other species due to its place in the energy pyramid
and food web.
Cheetahs are
an African savanna cat. These cats feed on hoofed animals that are typically
fast moving prey. Cheetahs need a third of a year to produce cubs. After this
time, the cubs need a place to hide for 6 weeks, this is why their fur is grey
during that time. These animals are the fastest land animals in the world. They
have the ability to run 70 miles per hour. One could imagine that the Blackland
Prairies and the High
Plains, Texas could sustain a cheetah population, if they had a larger
variety of food sources like Africa. If buffalo still roamed the great plains,
then the Cheetah could occupy a niche, so bringing a slow grazing animal
adaptable for the southwest would provide an additional prey species. The mountain lion (or puma, panther,
cougar, and incredibly, 40 other names) is a more masculine, powerful looking
American cat that can be found anywhere in between the Pacific and Atlantic.
These cats occupy so many niches that they cannot possibly be replaced by the
cheetah. Puma eat everything from bugs to large deer. Mountain lions run 35 miles per hour for short distances, which is only
half the speed of the cheetah, yet can jump over 20 ft in length.
Dingoes are a dog type species. 2000 BC, the people who lived
in Asia minor brought domesticated dogs to Australia, and when the first
English settlers arrived, they detected them in the whole confused
island/continent. These dogs are the way
they are because of natural pressures and isolated breeding. Like one the dog’s
common ancestors, the coyote, the Dingo is an omnivore that prefers to eat
small mammals, but will consume reptiles, birds, invertebrates and seeds. These
Dingoes can survive anywhere that an omnivore can get food and water. Dingoes
are actually growing in population due to their being able to thrive near
increasing human settlements. Dingoes
pack up in groups of 12 or more to catch larger animals, yet some Dingoes are
solitary and hunt out small mammals. The dingoes are monogamous and need a
natural home to keep at least 5 pups, like a cave, abandoned rodent hole and
other such things. Dingoes would not even make a complete replacement of the
coyote but would be a competing species. In their original environment, Dingoes
are mixing with dog species and their bloodlines have continued to change. Rodents
have caused diseases and the hybrids that occur among the new feral dogs and
the old ones have caused the dingoes to melt back to the larger gene pool of
cannas lupus. America could have interesting issues if such population were to
take up, and it would in more places then the south west but probably like the
Houston shore line the best.
There is evidence that camels can
stand the southwest of America. The Americans have brought Camels to America
for two things, guess; war and business.
Bactrian Camels are an endangered
Chinese camel. This camel was suppose to be in the Gobi desert and grassland,
but there are now there about 1,000 left. The camel can handle extreme hot
weathers as well as winters as cold as -40 F. This means that the Bactrian camel
can survive in the whole southwest. Camels became extinct in North America ~9
thousand years ago. The camel is easy on sand and good with rocks, yet no word
on cactus, which I assume would block many foreign species. The camel can
handle salt water, brackish water, and little water. Do not mess with hungry
camels! The Bactrian camel normally eats grass, grains, nut, and roots. The
camel has the ability to eat bark, wood, whole stems and even thorny foliage.
The camel, if extremely hungry, may eat human dress wear, garbage, tents, and
flesh and bones. These Camels act nasty in mating season, with a habit of spitting
on anyone who irritates them. The camels are declining rapidly, due to
industrial poison and the competition of grazing animals. These camels need a
home, but they would struggle here as well as they do in china. The Dromedary
Camel are not as nasty as the Bactrian camel, and this species have already
been introduced to Australia. This camel is a close relative. The Dromedary
Camel can also eat all of the Bactrian Camel can, including thorny bushes. This
Camel actually needs salt in the diet so it needs access to saltwater growing
plants. Camels have a ~3 year reproduction rate and only have tigers as their
predator, yet that is rare.
In the med 1800s, Major
Wayne and Lieutenant David D. Porter brought 33 Camels to Indianola, Texas, as an experiment. The
shipping was a complete success and in February 1857, a second cargo, containing 41 camels, and a camel camp was started for research. It
was found that 6 Camels were equivalent to 12 houses in pulling power. The
camels were being sold and used because they were also good with high trails.
Afterwards, the owners set them loose on Texas country where the cowhands found
them and killed them. Camels were continually brought to America for frontier
projects and let loose afterwards. State governments would buy Bactrian camels
for traveling in areas like Arizona or Colorado. Private companies invested in
camels also. These camels were bought at the ports of California and that is
when Mexico invested in them. The Mexicans heard that camels were so resilient
that they were almost impossible to kill so they were so negligent when
delivering camels that hardly any
survived. French businessmen in the west bought a breeding pair from
Mexico and raised 25. Selling them all over Nevada and in Arizona for mining
and always letting them loose afterwards. In 1885-1891, miners would report
seeing camels in the Death Valley, California and Arizona. In 1901 they were
first spotted in New Mexico, and sightings continue in the Southwest up to
1970, afterwards sightings have been claimed only in death valley, California.
The camels can live in Southwest America. The no man’s land of the Sonora Desert has and probably can
continue to sustain Camels.
Kangaroos live in the grassland or desert scrub
and feed off the new growth on trees. The water in this vegetation is enough
for the kangaroo to survive, yet they may have a sip of water in one point in
their life if they can. The Kangaroo, like many things in Australia, has a large
number of ways to kill. The Kangaroo often dismantles opponents by kicking them
with their claws. The Kangaroo may escape into water where it swims well in, if
still pursued then the kangaroo drowns the pursuer by holding it down on its
legs. The Kangaroo has few predators. Kangaroos can reproduce all year and
deliver in a month from the last coupling. Kangaroos actually have a huge
population in Australia. Hunters have killed many of them every year and they
are no where near endangered. Kangaroos would do well in the whole western
country but particularly well at Arbuckle Mt., and the Ouachita area.
White Rhinoceros belongs in the grasslands and woodlands. By first eating woody plants
they help the grass grow. Then they graze on the grass and not on the woody
plants. They also eat buds, shoots of wood, herbs, and also succulent plants.
The Rhinoceros need at least 20 gallons of water a day, yet like people, can
last several days without it. The Rhinoceros needs about 5 years (~50 or so
months) to raise a single child and the rhino can live up to 45. On top of
that, many rhinos die of wounds from skirmishes between males and females
before coupling. This means that rhinos would be helped by human intervention
to start a population. Rhinos have no natural threats other than man, making
them a resilient species, once established.
Rhinos would be are welcome in Blackland Prairies, Texas and Red Bed,
Sandstone, Oklahoma.
The Arabian wildcat exist in the eastern Arabian Peninsula. It makes
its habitat is semi-desert and rocky terrain, making this cat great for the
Sonoran Desert or even the Rockies. They avoid the desert wastelands filled
with large dunes without scrub and rock, which America lacks in general. The
territory of a male may overlap the territories of several females. The cat, in
the course of a year, may range over 8 to 10 miles. It lives in a territory
that may extent several square miles, with a male live in a larger area than a
female. The cat maintains several den sites within its territory, assuring a
safe haven exists close by, wherever it may be. It makes a den with an entrance
on the slope of a dune, this might not work in some American soils, such as is
found in some parts of Texas or Oklahoma. “It preys primarily on rodents,
reptiles, small birds and even insects, although it will occasionally eat small
amounts of vegetable matter. It depends on the liquids in its diet to meet most
of its needs for water.”
The Arabian wildcat seeks a mate
during the breeding season in the cooler months of November-January. The male
follows the scent of a female. After mating, the male resumes his life.
Provisionally, the female arranges a den for her the brood. Sixty-five days
after mating, she delivers ~4 blind kittens. A kitten, opening its eyes about 7
to 12 days after its birth, nurses for weeks. The spots transform into stripes
overtime. In ~3 months, they learn hunting from the mother. Still maturing, the
kittens become self-reliant at about six months. They mature sexually at 1
year. The Arabian wildcat may live for about 7 to 8 years.
All from
http://www.desertusa.com/animals/arabian-wildcat.html : “Its range has been adversely
affected by
encroachment from human expansion. Its numbers have been
impacted by road kills and hunting. It
cross-breeds readily with encroaching
humans' pet and feral cats, raising the specters of pervasive hybridization and
disease transmission. Cross-breeding could lead to the extinction of the pure
species.” It may be interesting
introducing this cat to the to the bobcat environments. Perhaps a completely
new wild American cat species may appear. The two cats may share the same
predators.
Bobcats are more often found
in the woody or grassland areas then they are desert or mountains. The Hunting
needs of bobcats include trees and small rodents. They are known to be
“opportunistic” which means they will kills and eat anything they can. The
bobcat would not dwell in the Arabian Cats territory (desert), but it also
could handle the competition. The bobcats’ predators are mostly man, wolves and
mountain lions. From
http://www.desertusa.com/animals/bobcats.html : “A bobcat consumes prodigious
numbers of prey. It is estimated, for instance, that the Florida female bobcat
and the three kittens to which she gave birth at the beginning of her second
year of life will consume at least 3800 cotton rats, 700 cottontail rabbits,
and 3200 cotton mice by the end of her second year."-- Coryi foundation
Internet site, "Bobcat Ecology," Timothy Mallow. By Jay W. Sharp
The complexity of introducing foreign species
deals with the bare necessities of that species needs to live and realities
(common sense) of biology. Looking into this, one can say that Kangaroos, Arabian
Cats, and Bactrian Camels could survive here the best.
Ideas for future research:
1.
What species have been introduced to America by humans?
2.
What actions will not only protect but increase the
numbers of endangered species?
3.
What adaptations have resilient species made to survive
in the Southwest extreme environments?
4.
What Hybrid species have developed naturally and how did
they affect their environments?
5.
What introduced species have destroyed or had a bad
effect on their environment?
Acknowledgments:
Special thanks to my father who always loved the extreme
exotic and obscure which was a large test of my creativity, styles, and even my
concept of reality. Thanks to my professor, who has taught me to walk and
persuaded me to run, and run I shall. Thanks to all my peers who are working on
this project so that I also may keep going and not quit. Thanks to all my
heroes of history including Archimedes, Pericles, Alexander the great, various
French and American and such. Also thanks to literature, more specifically
science fiction, for pulling my creativity in the right frame of mind for the
future.
Bibliography
Stephen J. DeMaso,
Ph.D., Caesar Kleberg,http://irnr.tamu.edu/bret/BretWebSiteDocs/RGWTHabitat.pdf, 8/07
RGV Business YP Directory, Community and Event
Calendar, http://riograndevalleytx.us/, 2013-2014
Biology
textbook: three levels of biodiversity.(page883)
Biology
textbook: biodiversity and human welfare.(page884)
Biology
textbook: threats to biodiversity.(page885)
Biology
textbook: small population approach.(pg888)
Biology
textbook: declining-population approach.(pg890)
Biology
textbook: weighing conflicting demands.(pg891)
Biology
textbook: landscape structure and biodiversity. (pg892)
Biology textbook: establishing
protected areas. (pg893)
