Released exotic species invade Guangdong's ecological chain

Red-eared sliders in a pond for life release at South Putuo Temple. (Photo: file photo)

(ECNS) – The popular practice in south China's Guangdong province of buying and releasing animals, many of them exotic species, is affecting the local ecological chain, the Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News reported.

A former official at the Guangzhou fishery administration said that plecostomus, a kind of sucker fish from Central and South America that eats algae and dead fish, has multiplied rapidly in the Zhujiang river.

Experts at the local branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said they had also found the exotic species in other important watersheds in the province.

At a scenic spot in Guangzhou's Panyu, red-eared sliders, originally from North America, have taken over a pond where they were released.

There are no predators to control the populations of these exotic animals, which reproduce rapidly in the new environment and damage the ecological balance.

Gong Shiping, a researcher at the Guangdong Entomological Institute, said that more than 150 foreign species have invaded the province. "It has caused losses of some ten billion yuan for the province, and damaged biological diversity and the ecosystem," he added.

These dangerous invasive species can be easily bought in markets, as China hasn't introduced laws to control them.

The government should prevent the intentional introduction of exotic species into the ecosystem, said Gong.

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Nine photos were posted on Sina Weibo, one of which showed a "good-looking" woman opening a bag of snakes in areas surrounded by bamboo.