00:00Humans are at the top of the food chain, but despite this, some creatures cause us a lot of trouble, and we can't do anything about them.
00:09Look at these flies with red eyes and blue-green bodies.
00:13These are some farmers' worst nightmare in the United States of America.
00:18Meet the New World screwworm flies.
00:20These little troublemakers have been munching on livestock from Florida to California for centuries, racking up some serious damage to the agricultural scene.
00:30To combat these pesky flies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped a whopping 15 million sterile screwworm larvae from helicopters along the Panama-Colombia border.
00:41There's even a factory in Panama cranking out these sterile larvae like it's factory fresh fruit.
00:47This action sounds weird, but it makes a lot of sense.
00:51The thing is, female flies only get one shot at mating in their entire lives.
00:55So if they happen to mate with a sterile dude, that's it.
00:59No offspring, ever.
01:03This clever trick means healthy screwworms can't reproduce when surrounded by sterile pals, which keeps their numbers in check.
01:10But how do we make these male flies sterile in the first place?
01:14Simple.
01:15A little radiation zap does the trick.
01:17You throw a bunch of flies in a lab, give them a quick spin through an x-ray machine, and then drop them from a helicopter into the wild, where their relatives are hanging out.
01:28If screwworms start making a comeback, inspectors hop on ATVs and cruise thousands of miles to hunt down any infected animals and stop the spread.
01:37There's no magic trick to wipe out these parasites completely, but the game plan is clear.
01:44Keep the sterile fly drops coming and stay one step ahead of these pesky little critters.
01:50Do you know why it's too dangerous to move animals from one habitat to another?
01:55There's a possibility that they won't encounter predators in the new area and will become an invasive species that will provoke an ecological disaster.
02:03Here's a simple example.
02:04In the 30s, in the 20th century, farmers from Australia faced a serious problem.
02:11Cane beetles were spoiling sugar cane in the northern part of the country.
02:15Insects devoured a huge amount of the harvest, and people couldn't stop it.
02:20They didn't want to spoil the cane with poisonous pesticides, so they brought a group of cane toads from South America in the hope that the toads would eat the pests.
02:29But when these toads found themselves in the reed fields, they couldn't reach the bugs, as they lived on tall reeds.
02:37The toads just couldn't jump at such height and get the pests.
02:41So instead of beetles, they began to eat other insects.
02:47Amphibians started multiplying at a tremendous rate.
02:49The female cane toad can lay about 30,000 eggs at a time.
02:54After three days, small tadpoles hatch from the eggs.
02:58They swim in the water for 20 weeks and then turn into grown-up toads that live from 5 to 10 years.
03:05Millions of jumping animals began taking over the entire northern part of the continent, destroying all the biodiversity around.
03:13Leaves, grass, insects, carrion.
03:15Toads ate all this and didn't leave food for other animals.
03:20The problem was that the toads turned out to be very hearted creatures.
03:24Heat, cold, rain, droughts.
03:26They can breed anywhere, and nothing can stop them.
03:29But what about other animals?
03:31Australia is full of alligators, big birds, and other creatures that would love to feast on croaking amphibians.
03:38Yes, it's true.
03:39But any animal that tried to eat these toads didn't survive.
03:43The problem is that cane toads are venomous.
03:48There are special glands behind their eyes that produce strong toxins that cause serious health problems in any animal.
03:55Some farmers saw birds falling from the sky after they had swallowed these amphibians.
03:59More than 80 years have passed since farmers brought 100 cane toads to Australia.
04:06Now, there are about 1.5 billion of them.
04:10They have already covered 386,000 square miles, which is about the same area as the states of Texas and Oklahoma combined.
04:18And so far, scientists and biologists haven't come up with an effective way to deal with them.
04:25People tried to catch them, but it was useless.
04:29Even if you catch 98 toads out of 100 next to a small pond, the two remaining toads can produce 30,000 eggs per night.
04:37Nature may be able to restore balance when some animals with immunity to toad toxins appear in Australia.
04:45But at the moment, cane toads are unstoppable.
04:50How can we stop the uncontrolled population of mosquitoes that are dangerous to humans?
04:55The correct answer is to create 735 million genetically modified mosquitoes and mix these two groups.
05:02All over the world, many species of mosquitoes carry infections that cause serious health problems to humans.
05:11Almost no one likes mosquitoes.
05:13These buzzing insects prevent us from sleeping, and their bites are incredibly itchy.
05:18Many people would probably be happy if these creatures disappeared from the face of the Earth.
05:24And scientists might have found a way to make this wish come true.
05:27Only female mosquitoes bite us because they need food to produce eggs.
05:33So, scientists released genetically modified male mosquitoes with a special protein in their bodies.
05:40After two mosquitoes come into contact, this protein is transmitted from the male to the female and then prevents it from producing offspring.
05:48All this happens before the age when females begin to bite.
05:52So, females can't create offspring, which means they don't need to bite people and animals anymore.
06:00And the more of such protein scientists spread, the smaller the mosquito population will be.
06:05It sounds good, but about 240,000 people have signed a petition to cancel this experiment.
06:12Many scientists believe that the disappearance of one insect species can lead to a biological catastrophe.
06:18Nature is a complex, balanced system, where the slightest change can lead to serious problems.
06:27Mosquitoes are a food source for many reptiles and amphibians.
06:31The extinction of mosquitoes can trigger the disappearance of many species.
06:36It's like a chain reaction of catastrophes, the end of which is unknown.
06:41Nevertheless, modified mosquitoes have already been released in Florida, and it seems that nothing terrible has happened.
06:47The good news is that people have fewer health problems after that.
06:52Moreover, since 2019, about 1.5 billion mosquitoes have been released worldwide.
06:59It has saved millions of lives and hasn't disrupted the delicate balance of nature yet.
07:05Recently, scientists have released another group of safe mosquitoes in East Africa.
07:10Well, let's hope that scientists have everything under control.
07:13Invasive species are not always mosquitoes, flies, or amphibians.
07:20These can also be large animals, such as feral pigs or super pigs.
07:25These pigs are a mix of domestic swine and wild boar.
07:29There are already almost 7 million feral hogs in the south of the USA.
07:35Thanks to people's efforts, these animals haven't spread to the north yet.
07:39But the danger to the northern states comes from Canada.
07:44Pigs were brought there in the 80s to support agriculture.
07:47But in the early 2000s, wild boars lost their popularity.
07:51They just stayed in the wild, and farmers were sure that those animals wouldn't survive the harsh Canadian winter.
07:58Oh, how wrong they were.
08:00Wild pigs turned out to be hardy, mobile, and capable of rapid reproduction.
08:05These animals dig and tear up the ground, eat almost everything they come across, and thus, take food from other animals.
08:14By the way, other creatures can become their lunch, too.
08:18Wild pigs attack mice, geese, ducks, and some species of deer.
08:22They trample crops, grass, and flowers, and are not afraid of anything.
08:28They're like natural bulldozers.
08:31Any farm is in danger of extinction if it's in the path of thousands of super pigs.
08:37And people can't do anything with them.
08:39The northern states understand that an invasion is imminent, so they're preparing for a long battle.
08:45Super pigs love swampy areas with tall grass.
08:48Canadian and American farmers will try to drive them into more open areas and fence those places off.
08:55The plan is not perfect, but it can slow the pigs down and save some time.
09:03That's it for today.
09:04So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:09Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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