Top 10 Invasive Species DESTROYING The Planet [Good Enough Reaction]

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:02]Hello and meowdy everyone. Welcome back to another video as I Staff with the Silly Decos YouTuber and today we are doing the invasive animals destroying the planet. Original video is linked down below if you would like to go check it out. And if you are new to my channel or if you are returning to my channel, I do have a anime reaction channel here on YouTube and I have a gaming channel here on YouTube. Check those out linked down below in the description and let's dive on into the video.

[00:00:26]Let's go. Let's start with the animals that are collapsing ecosystems and slowly work our way towards the ones destroying entire continents.

[00:00:33]>> Okay. Number eight, silver carp. Mhm.

[00:00:35]Silver carp are some of the most destructive invasive fish that can infest any body of water. But I must admit, it's the only invasive animal on the list that is actually funny. We've all seen the videos where the I was not expecting him to call him funny, but okay. Okay. Okay.

[00:00:52]>> out of the water smacking people on the side of the head or body. Now, of course, they sometimes send people to the hospital with broken bones or concussions. But that's just a small price to pay for comedy. I didn't realize that they give people concussions. I know that they did like jump out of the water. I didn't realize that we're giving them concussions that here from a fish. Silver carp have caused the most destruction here in the US, specifically in the Mississippi and its connecting rivers. The carp were first brought from Asia and introduced into the US in the 1970s by companies trying to clean their private lakes.

[00:01:23]>> Oh. This is because carp are filter feeders and >> No. Oh, what are these? What are these?

[00:01:27]What are these? Let's introduce them.

[00:01:30]Because we can't take care. We need to take care of our problem, but this is the best solution, which is totally not the best solution.

[00:01:35]>> algae, plankton, or really any small particles suspended in the water. But of course, the fish ended up escaping during a flood making their way into the Mississippi River where they quickly multiplied into the millions. Today, these rivers are absolutely overrun by these fish since they easily outcompete native animals for food. Many states are trying >> Why is he always upside down? Can you eat silver carp?

[00:01:58]I don't know. I know I'm not I'm I don't eat fish. I don't really like fish. I don't I eat only a select food. I feel like that's like a fish that you wouldn't want to eat though.

[00:02:07]>> everything they can to stop the carps from spreading. From shocking the water to hurting them with enormous nets. They have even created a sport to try and get rid of them.

[00:02:16]>> A sport?

[00:02:17]>> this is America, of course, the sport is just shooting them. Wow. For example, in Kentucky, [laughter] the Department of Fish and Wildlife hosts bow fishing tournaments where participants kill as many of the fish as they possibly can with the winner taking home $10,000.

[00:02:31]>> That's kind of smart. I'm not going to lie, that's kind of smart. Utilizing your resources and you know everyone in Kentucky loves to hunt, like this is up their alley. This is up their alley. And they do this big thing and then do like almost like a controlled hunting, but kind of differently cuz you're fishing the invasive carp. But that's actually a smart idea and that's a good freaking prize pool. But another way people can come together to help fight this invasive species is by simply eating them. Yes, the fish is very healthy, has minimal to no mercury, is packed with vitamins and minerals, and great for overall health. Do people get sick of eating silver carp that live in the Mississippi River though?

[00:03:10]Do you guys like get served silver carp and you're like, "Nah, not again." Which is the exact reason Americans don't eat it. Number seven, cane toads. Invasive cane toads are some of the most destructive animals on the entire planet and in many cases have single-handedly collapsed entire ecosystems. The toad is native to South and mainland Central America, but thanks to humans, they have been introduced to various parts of the world. But let's just take a look at Australia since it's perhaps the place that has been the most devastated. In 1935, 102 cane toads were released Look at this sad Australian.

[00:03:44]We do know what If you guys didn't know, we did the more parts reaction to his cane toad videos, you can find it on the channel if you are wanting to dive down on this topic with me.

[00:03:53]>> least into the wild in hopes that they would eat the cane grub, [music] a small larva that was decimating sugarcane crops. Sugar scientists must have just taken a look at their names and figured that the cane toad must eat the cane grub since their names were practically a match. But as it turns out, the cane toad eats just about everything from birds, insects, reptiles, rodents, and even dog food. But the one thing they don't eat, you guessed it, are the cane grubs. Just to rub it in the scientists' faces, they would even prefer to eat trash before the grubs.

[00:04:25]>> Bro, they do. They freaking do. They were like, "Oh, we're here for the grubs? Nah, let's let's wreak havoc on everything else." Reminding the scientists yet again how much of massive failures they truly are.

[00:04:36]>> Oh my goodness.

[00:04:37]>> Today, there are around 200 million cane toads in Australia and that number is only growing. Now, let's just take a look at the cane toad up close. At first glance, you might think, "Not bad. Solid forearms, great traps, and decent lats."

[00:04:53]But makes the common mistake of ignoring half its body. Now, it may come as a surprise, but those are not its traps.

[00:05:00]He is kind of a massive boy that skips leg day.

[00:05:04]He does kind of look like that. He is correct.

[00:05:07]>> Those are actually parotid glands where deadly poison is released. In fact, this poison has led to a massive decline of quolls, monitor lizards, crocodiles, and snakes, which are all native and important to Australia's ecosystem. But the good news is that some animals are just now beginning to adapt to the toad's poison. For example, the rockery have begun to flip toads over avoiding the poison glands, then surgically removing and eating the toads' hearts.

[00:05:34]Now, surprisingly, cane toads eat so much of the native wildlife that nothing is left for other cane toads. So, they have turned to eating the most abundant source of food, Cane toads.

[00:05:45]>> If you live in Australia and you have I guess that's kind of good in a sense for population control. They all just start eating each other when they see each other.

[00:05:53]That's really good. That helps them conserve their population, bring their population down.

[00:05:57]>> to come across a cane toad, it is recommended that you pick them up and place them inside of your fridge for 24 hours followed by placing them in the freezer for a couple of days before finally throwing them in the trash. I hate toads. Number six, rabbits. I like I like too how he put them cuz that's like like he said, that's what's recommended. That's what I'm pretty sure the Australian government already tells you to do. And I do kind of like they included this within the video for people to kind of remember if you're down there. Perhaps the bloodiest in all of history. Australia and New Zealand have been hit the hardest by these destructive pests. But today, we're just going to take a look at Australia as I believe it's been hit the worst of the two. In 1859, >> Bro, Australia could not catch a break, man. They could not catch a break.

[00:06:42]>> a man named Thomas Austin, a wealthy settler, imported 24 wild rabbits from England. He released the animals on his property so he can later hunt them for sport and eat them. But very quickly, the rabbits managed to escape and the rabbit population exploded. With no natural predators, those 24 rabbits multiplied to over 10 billion. This is what that look like. This many rabbits easily collapsed the entire ecosystem to Oh my They do. They do multiply quickly.

[00:07:11]That's crazy that only only it only takes a small handful for it to get out of control. of Australia by consuming the majority of the vegetation leaving very little for the native animals.

[00:07:22]Australians tried their best to hunt as many of the animals as they could, but no matter how many they killed, it wouldn't come close to making a dent. So instead, the Australian government turned to bioweapons. In the 1950s, scientists released a rabbit-specific virus called myxoma virus, which wiped out a good chunk of the population. But eventually, the rabbits developed immunity to the virus. So again, in the 1980s, scientists released a new targeted virus. This time it would be rabbit hemorrhagic disease, which only took 48 hours to kill and would end up eradicating 90% of the rabbit population in many areas. Aw. the rabbits began to develop immunity. Today, this game of catch-up continues and there are still over 200 million rabbits in Australia happily destroying everything they touch. Number five, That's less than where they started. They probably will release another virus or something. It's cool that you have the capabilities of doing such a well, you guys Okay, I should say I find things cool that you guys do not find things cool.

[00:08:26]Is what I should preference cuz sometimes I'm like, "That's really cool." and you guys are like, "Why would you call that cool?"

[00:08:32]It's really It's really intriguing, guys, that they can make a virus to wipe out rabbit populations like that and they did apparently ethically like they said that was a 48 time for when they contracted it to their death, which is pretty crazy to think about. Five, rodents. Why does it always have to be rats? Probably the most obvious pick on the list and easily the most annoying are rats and mice. These disgusting little pests have been following humans around the world for at least >> Okay. Okay. Why are we calling them disgusting?

[00:09:02]They're just out here living, too.

[00:09:04]15,000 years. But who can blame them?

[00:09:07]After all, humans leave behind the best loot. Now, in the majority of cities and towns, rats and mice are just a nuisance. But of course, in places like New York, they're just your roommates.

[00:09:19]One of the places where invasive rats and mice have caused the most destruction is actually on islands. For example, islands like Hawaii, Galapagos Islands, and New Zealand have seen a massive decline in their wildlife and forests since rats and mice arrived. New Zealand alone has lost 40 to 50% of their bird species and many more are currently facing the threat of extinction. This is because rats consume the majority of the native animals' foods like insects, seeds, and fruits.

[00:09:48]But of course, they'll also eat the animals themselves. And when animals finally build up the courage to eat the mice or rats for a change, it quickly backfires since That's like you guys ever visit New Zealand, they have a really strict policy when you go there cuz they like take biohazard like this seriously and they take invasive species and everything super super seriously cuz they don't want to corrupt any more of their um life there or whatever. Like it is it is super strict. I admire them for exactly what they should be doing cuz they are an island and you can disrupt the biodiversity very easily like they are saying, but if you ever visit there as a heads-up is is is a strict place as it should be though.

[00:10:28]>> After them getting sick from a deadly disease skyrockets. Now, even though many animals eat rodents, they reproduce at such high rates that it makes it impossible to eradicate them completely.

[00:10:38]Number four, Burmese python. The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world only behind the terrifying anaconda and reticulated python. Native to Southeast Asia, this snake would make its way into Florida in the 1980s and 90s thanks to exotic animal collectors.

[00:10:55]Yeah.

[00:10:55]>> originally, these exotic pet owners only saw a snake that only required a baby mouse or two to survive, but eventually, the snake would grow larger and larger requiring a bigger and more expensive meal like a rat or bird and eventually, a Chipotle burrito. So, [laughter] realizing that they are slowly going broke and losing hope that someone would someday say, "Cool snake." They come to the logical conclusion of simply releasing the snake into the wild making their problem everyone else's. Today, they're >> Yeah, oop, it got too big. Time to let it go. You know what? Unfortunately, you would have been better to actually you should have reached around the exotic community and seen if anyone wanted it or reached out to any zoos or facilities accredited within your neighborhood to see if they wanted it cuz I feel like they would probably have taken it.

[00:11:52]Instead of you just releasing it to the wild, but I know you probably like whoever did this whoever the first person released it or whatever probably never even like thought or those thoughts crossed their mind.

[00:12:02]They were just tired of spending all the money to feed it and were like, "Okay, goodbye." Tenths of thousands of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades consuming just about anything that moves from birds and mammals to alligators and crocodiles.

[00:12:15]>> Yeah, my bad, guys. My bad. We don't use our brains here. I forgot. No common sense. It's too hard. We don't think. I completely forgot. My bad. My bad. And in some parts of the Everglades, animals have declined by over 90% after the snakes arrival. Today, many people in Florida hunt these snakes as a full-time job earning as much as $150 for every 8-ft snake they catch. The difficult part is that these snakes are some of the best at hide-and-seek since they love to hide in dense vegetation, underground, in the water, and even in the trees. And in a surprise turn of events, when you least expect it, these snakes could find and tag you. Jesus.

[00:12:55]>> not uncommon for the snakes to work their way through plumbing systems and into toilets. Even though Florida memes are funny, we have to give credit where credit is due. Florida can hang their alligator skin hat knowing that they are currently in first place for having the most amount of invasive animals on the planet. Let's go, Florida. That's crazy.

[00:13:15]Florida has a That makes sense though cuz Florida does have the environment for a lot of like those tropical animals that would just thrive within Florida.

[00:13:24]Number three, wild pigs. This is the only animal on the list that I've encountered first hand and trust me, they are as mean and disgusting as they look.

[00:13:33]>> Yeah, that's the Yes. Yes. True. That's another downfall about Florida is hurricane season and hurricanes hitting um facilities, breeders, etc. Unfortunately, that is something that could happen is you know, habitats break, blah blah blah, animal escapes, and then you can't get him back. You lost him to the wild.

[00:13:56]Look, I've had wild pigs threaten to charge at me up close, but once it got a good look at my insane physique, it of course cowered it out by not chasing me.

[00:14:05]Wild pigs are native to Eurasia and parts of North Africa, but were brought over to the US, Australia, and Europe as a food source. But you will never guess what happened next. They Chad, do you think they escaped?

[00:14:18]What? Type one if you think they escaped.

[00:14:21]escaped and in the wild, their numbers quickly exploded. One interesting thing to note is that it took humans thousands of years to domesticate wild pigs into the smooth and gentle pink giants we see on farms today. But if that same pig managed to escape into the wild in a matter of months, it would revert back to its original form and look like this.

[00:14:41]Which makes me sick just looking at it.

[00:14:43]Damn.

[00:14:45]Wow.

[00:14:46]>> A wild pig can grow as large as 150 lb and before you say, "What about Hogzilla? He was much larger." But that was Who the heck is Hogzilla?

[00:14:57]Was that the biggest biggest wild pig ever caught?

[00:15:02]No, that had Who You guys know what Hogzilla lore?

[00:15:08]Look at that.

[00:15:10]much larger, but that was nothing more than a cheap and disgusting perspective trick that hunters like to abuse making the animal look much larger. Of course, I only do this when holding a fish.

[00:15:21]After all, how else would I convince my friends that I know what I'm doing? Now, let's talk about why these animals are so destructive. For one, pigs are omnivores and opportunistic feeders, so they will eat pretty much anything leaving nothing behind for native animals. One of the most destructive habits of wild pigs is rooting where they dig into the ground to consume the plants' roots, which destroys the soil and kills the native plants preventing them from growing again. Another terrible habit that pigs have is wallowing where they roll around in the mud next to a water source contaminating the water with bacteria, diseases, and parasites. Bro, they're having a good time. I don't know what you mean.

[00:15:59]They're just They're just silly little boys. They're trying to cool off from the hot weather. Which affects the native wildlife that drink the water.

[00:16:06]Now, here in America, farmers and landowners are sick of these pigs and are fighting back the only way we know how, which is by shooting them with high-caliber machine guns from helicopters. After all, there is no other way.

[00:16:19]I thought I thought like you guys could have had open hunt. Like you guys could just like go ahead and them whatever.

[00:16:25]But we got helicopters out here with machine guns? Now, I know what you're thinking, "Lucky them." But don't worry, you can always pay to experience this for yourself. Number two, the brown tree snake. The brown tree snake is a mildly venomous snake native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. But during the 1940s, the US military accidentally brought the snake to Guam most likely in shipping containers or in cargo. Today, there are around 2 million of these snakes on the island or around 3,000 snakes per square mile making it almost impossible not to run into them.

[00:16:59]Here on the island I'm going I'm going to be honest with you guys. I was in Guam and I don't think I saw any of them.

[00:17:06]>> [laughter] >> I don't remember seeing these guys when I was out walking. Maybe I had bad eyesight. I don't know.

[00:17:14]>> Picking up common items like tree branches, logs, and cords are all a frightening game of roulette.

[00:17:21]Damn.

[00:17:22]>> The brown tree snake is the only species of snake on the entire island, which hasn't allowed enough time for the native animals to adapt accordingly [music] leading to seven out of 18 native bird species to become extinct permanently changing Guam's ecosystem.

[00:17:36]But not only are these snakes eating all the native animals on the island, they are also constantly causing power outages since they love to climb on transformers and electrical lines causing them to short-circuit. Today, US I guess I guess I guess they're kind of taking care of themselves in a way.

[00:17:55]But this seemed like it was all accidental like they said it came in shipping containers and went out without even realizing. These are fighting back by using helicopters to drop thousands of dead mice onto the trees for the snakes to eat. The free meal comes with a deadly amount of painkillers, which are glued onto the mice causing the snakes to die soon after eating them.

[00:18:14]But only time will tell if this proves to be an effective way of controlling the snake population before >> I love I love when we get creative. Like who would have ever thought of that?

[00:18:22]>> or all the native birds and animals are completely wiped out. Number one, feral cats. Who would have thought that these cute and cuddly animals would be capable of so much death and destruction? Well, anyone who lives with one could have told you that. Yes, the deadliest and most destructive invasive animal in the world was right next to us the entire time. And in all honesty, we should have seen this one coming since all the signs were there. To see just how much of an impact cats can have on an ecosystem or in this case, an entire continent, we just have to take a look at Australia.

[00:18:54]And since they were definitely going back to Australia. Well, I remember when I was down there for the little while I was down there, it was such like a fine little thing and a big and a big thing when it came to cats.

[00:19:05]>> 19th century, cats arrived in Australia on ships to help manage the rat and mouse populations. But over time, cats got sick of being around humans and figured that starting a new life in the Australian Outback was a way better option. And in no time, the feral cat population exploded. Today, there are anywhere from 2 to 10 million cats in the wild and are directly linked to the extinction of many native species and the endangerment of hundreds more. And since cats have no natural predators and many options for food, that number is only growing. It's estimated that 1 million native birds and reptiles are killed every single day by feral cats.

[00:19:43]>> And I'm pretty sure like it depends on what state you live or whatever when it comes to Australia, but I'm pretty sure that there was like rules where if you're going to have a cat, it has to be an inside cat.

[00:19:52]Which is understandable cuz they wreck so much havoc and I'm pretty sure like that like you can get fined for your cat being outside or something like that. I don't know the complete details cuz I've never owned a cat in Australia, but I would suggest you guys go Google it if you guys want more information on that, but I'm pretty sure it's something along that line. and well over a billion animals every single year, making them the deadliest invasive animal on the planet. So, in an attempt to lower the feral cat population, authorities are deploying poison baits in areas with high concentration of cats. And in certain areas, hunters are paid to trap and kill the animal, being paid $10 per cat scalp. Now, another tactic that is being implemented is simply giving up, creating a 27-mi cat-free zone by enclosing it with an electric fence to protect native animals, essentially providing them with a little safe haven inside of a maximum-security prison.

[00:20:46]But, in a way you Oh, shoot. Sorry. In a way you can monitor the animals if that's what you want to do. Not saying like that's the best idea, but at least that allows an area where the populations and, you know, the local fauna can still prosper and they can still grow and they can still live their life without any cats infecting it. If you made it all the way to the end of this video, um comment down a cat emoji.

[00:21:11]We'll do the cat emoji cuz the last thing we saw, the last animal that we had. And do remember I do have an anime reaction here on YouTube and a gaming channel. If you would like to go check those out, I do stream live on Twitch. Links are all down below in the description and I will catch you guys all on the flip side. Go bye. Go bye.