Feral

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Feral bull in Sierra Nevada de Mérida, Venezuela
mustangs) in Oregon

A feral (from

indigenous species. The removal of feral species is a major focus of island restoration
.

Animals

A feral

camels, and pigs. Zoologists generally exclude from the feral category animals that were genuinely wild before they escaped from captivity: neither lions escaped from a zoo nor the white-tailed eagles re-introduced to the UK are regarded as feral.[3]

Plants

Alfalfa plants, Medicago sativa, colonize roadsides

Domesticated

genetically modified crop plants or of the modified traits in other plants as a result of cross-breeding is known as "adventitious presence (AP)".[5][6]

Variables

Stray kitten in Nablus

Certain familiar animals go feral easily and successfully, while others are much less inclined to wander and usually fail promptly outside domestication. Some species will detach readily from humans and pursue their own devices, but do not stray far or spread readily. Others depart and are gone, seeking out new territory or range to exploit and displaying active invasiveness. Whether they leave readily and venture far, the ultimate criterion for success is longevity. Persistence depends on their ability to establish themselves and reproduce reliably in the new environment. Neither the duration nor the intensity with which a species has been domesticated offers a useful correlation with its feral potential. [citation needed]

Species of feral animals

Feral dogs in Bucharest

The

trap-neuter-return" method has been used in many locations as an alternative means of managing the feral cat population.[7]

A feral goat in Cornwall

The goat is one of the oldest domesticated creatures, yet readily returns to a feral state. Sheep are close contemporaries and cohorts of goats in the history of domestication, but the domestic sheep is vulnerable to predation and injury, and thus rarely seen in a feral state. However, in places where there are few predators, they may thrive, for example in the case of the Soay sheep. Both goats and sheep were sometimes intentionally released and allowed to go feral on island waypoints frequented by mariners, to serve as a ready food source.

The dromedary camel, which has been domesticated for over 3,000 years, will also readily go feral. A substantial population of feral dromedaries, descended from pack animals that escaped in the 19th and early 20th centuries, thrives in the Australian interior today.

Water buffalo run rampant in Western and Northern Australia. The Australian government encourages the hunting of feral water buffalo because of their large numbers.

An escaped cow ambles down a street in Namie, Fukushima, a town evacuated following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. In situations where humans leave an area, domesticated animals left behind have the opportunity to escape into the wild.

Cape buffalo. Modern cattle, especially those raised on open range, are generally more docile, but when threatened can display aggression. Cattle, particularly those raised for beef, are often allowed to roam quite freely and have established long term independence in Australia, New Zealand and several Pacific Islands along with small populations of semi-feral animals roaming the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Such cattle are variously called mavericks
, scrubbers or cleanskins. Most free roaming cattle, however untamed, are generally too valuable not to be eventually rounded up and recovered in closely settled regions.

Chincoteague Pony and the Banker horse. They are often referred to as "wild horses", but this is a misnomer. There are truly "wild" horses that have never been domesticated, most notably Przewalski's horse.[9] While the horse was originally indigenous to North America, the wild ancestor died out at the end of the last ice age. In both Australia and the Americas, modern "wild" horses descended from domesticated horses brought by European explorers and settlers that escaped, spread, and thrived. Australia hosts a feral donkey population, as do the Virgin Islands
and the American southwest.

Feral donkeys

The pig has established feral populations worldwide, including in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Pigs were introduced to the Melanesian and Polynesian regions by humans from several thousand to 500 years ago, and to the Americas within the past 500 years. In Australia, domesticated pigs escaped in the 18th century, and now cover 40 percent of Australia,[10] with a population estimated at 30 million. While pigs are thought to have been brought to New Zealand by the original Polynesian settlers, this population had become extinct by the time of European colonization, and all feral pigs in New Zealand today are descendants of European stock.[citation needed] Many European wild boar populations are also partially descended from escaped domestic pigs and are thus feral animals within the native range of the ancestral species.[citation needed]

humans
A feral Barbary dove in Tasmania, Australia. Also known as a ringneck dove or ring dove (Streptopelia risoria)

Rock pigeons were formerly kept for their meat or more commonly as racing animals and have established feral populations
in cities worldwide.

Colonies of honey bees often escape into the wild from managed apiaries when they swarm; their behavior, however, is no different from their behavior in captivity, unless they breed with other feral honey bees of a different genetic stock, which may lead them to become more docile or more aggressive (see Africanized bees).

Large colonies of feral parrots are present in various parts of the world, with rose-ringed parakeets, monk parakeets and red-masked parakeets (the latter of which became the subject of the documentary film, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill) being particularly successful outside of their native habitats and adapting well to suburban environments.

Key West, Florida

domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) who have returned to the wild. Like the red junglefowl (the closest wild relative of domestic chickens), wild cocks will take flight and roost in tall trees and bushes in order to avoid predators at night. Wild cocks typically form social groups composed of, a dominant cockerel, several hens, and subordinate cocks. Sometimes the dominant cockerel is designated by a fight between cocks.[11]

Effects of feralization

Ecological impact

A feral population can have a significant impact on an ecosystem by predation on vulnerable plants or animals, or by competition with indigenous species. Feral plants and animals constitute a significant share of

Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in order to replace their ancestor, the aurochs
.

Genetic pollution

Animals of domestic origin sometimes can produce fertile hybrids with native, wild animals which leads to

dingo hybrids and the possibility of the extinction of pure wild dingoes.[13] Researches in Scotland have remarked on a similar phenomenon of the genetic mixing of feral domestic cats and their wild counterparts.[14]

Economic harm

Feral animals compete with domestic livestock, and may degrade fences, water sources, and vegetation (by overgrazing or introducing seeds of invasive plants). Although hotly disputed, some cite as an example the competition between feral horses and cattle in the western United States. Another example is of goats competing with cattle in Australia, or goats that degrade trees and vegetation in environmentally-stressed regions of Africa. Accidental crossbreeding by feral animals may result in harm to breeding programs of pedigreed animals; their presence may also excite domestic animals and push them to escape. Feral populations can also pass on transmissible infections to domestic herds. Loss to farmers by aggressive feral dog population is common in India.

Economic benefits

Many feral animals can sometimes be captured at little cost and thus constitute a significant resource. Throughout most of Polynesia and Melanesia feral pigs constitute the primary sources of animal protein. Prior to the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, American mustangs were routinely captured and sold for horsemeat. In Australia feral goats, pigs and dromedaries are harvested for the export for their meat trade. At certain times, animals were sometimes deliberately left to go feral, typically on islands,[citation needed] in order to be later recovered for profit or food use for travelers (particularly sailors) at the end of a few years.

Scientific value

Populations of feral animals present good sources for studies of population dynamics, and especially of ecology and behavior (ethology) in a wide state of species known mainly in a domestic state. Such observations can provide useful information for the stock breeders or other owners of the domesticated conspecifics (i.e. animals of the same species).

Cultural or historic value

American

American West
. A similar situation is that of the
Letea Forest in the Danube Delta. The Romanian government is considering the protection of the feral horses and transforming them into a tourist attraction, after it first approved the killing of the entire population. Due to the intervention of numerous organizations and widespread popular disapproval of the Romanians the horses have been saved, but still have an uncertain fate as their legal status is unclear and local people continue to claim the right to use the horses in their own interest.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary". Retrieved 23 October 2013.
  2. ^ Stevens, Sidney (September 14, 2020). "10 Feral Animals Wreaking Environmental Havoc". Treehugger.
  3. ^ Lever, Christopher (1996). "Naturalized birds: feral, exotic, introduced or alien?". British Birds. 89 (8): 367–368.
  4. ^ Takeuchi, Masami, "Working Definitions" (PDF), Food Safety at FAO
  5. PMID 22224495
  6. ^ .
  7. .
  8. ^ "Wild and feral horses". The Outer Banks Wild Horses. 2016.
  9. ^ Queensland Government. "Feral pig". Primary industries & fisheries. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12.
  10. S2CID 45208700. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2005-05-15. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
  11. ^ Suk; et al. (February 2007). {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ^ Fleming, Peter; Laurie Corbett; Robert Harden; Peter Thomson (2001). Managing the Impacts of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs. Commonwealth of Australia: Bureau of Rural Sciences.
  13. .
  14. ^ "Noah's Ark – Project Horses Romania". Archived from the original on February 20, 2012.

External links

  • The dictionary definition of feral at Wiktionary
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