This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In George Orwell's 1945 allegorical novella "Animal Farm," pigs coach the other revolutionary farm animals in their new creed of Animalism using the memorable maxim: four legs good, two legs bad. In Australia, there's a parallel mantra: native animals good, introduced animals bad.
Australians learn from an early age to distinguish between these groups. A sighting of a koala or kangaroo is good and natural, but seeing rabbits amid eucalypts or flocks of starlings in the sky is bad and wrong. As an environmental historian, I'm interested in how we come to make these decisions and the impact they have.
In our official and unofficial categorizations, some introduced animals are denigrated further as "invasives"—species labeled pests that threaten some native animals and more favored introduced species. If these invasive species were once domesticated, they are deemed "feral" or "wild." The ecologists of Australia's Threatened Species Recovery Hub consider the worst invasive animal species to be European rabbits and foxes, black rats, feral pigs, cats, goats and cattle, while the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry adds feral deer and wild dogs to this list. Other authorities include camels.
Except for stowaway rats, all of these animals were deliberately introduced to Australia by settler colonists. Breeding populations were kept alive during perilous sea voyages and cared for while they adapted. Each species established itself on the new continent as planned.
But they became too successful and have been vilified for it. No species is intrinsically evil. Rather, some humans decide a given animal is good or bad based on how it affects our interests.
Australia's deliberately introduced species were lauded at first. They had jobs such as eating pests, carrying heavy loads, providing sport or furnishing meat. When they stopped serving this purpose and began to serve themselves, their presence became a betrayal.
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