Biology
Pests are regarded as organisms that poses characteristics which are usually unwanted or damaging, since it mainly harms the ecosystem or even carries germs. According to Prins and Gordon (2014), agricultural sector suffers a huge blow due to mammalian pests (p.429). there exists one mammalian pest that harms the ecosystem as well as the agricultural sector. It is called Gazella kadudu.
Gazella kadudu is a wild gazelle that excretes feaces which when it comes into contact with water body, it kills the organisms like fish and frog in the habitat. It is also a carrier of the deadly Ebola virus, which is lethal to humans. This pest invades on plantations and destroys them in such of its food and in the process infecting the nearby domesticated animals with Rift Valley fever, as well as the Ebola virus to humans. This pest population is rapidly increasing due to the current climatic change. The massive plantation of maize and corns by humans in forest area rapidly facilitate the destructions caused by this pest. The pest destroys crops as well and kill people in areas where they habit as well as causing Ebola epidemic. In Australia, the pest causes death of livestock of the farmers in most parts, whereas the effect is adverse in western part of Africa.
This pest has a jungle green fur color that enables it blend with the environment, with running speed close to that of an ostrich to enable it to run very fast when it is in danger. It also has a pair of horns for defense and mimics the sound of a cow, sheep and dog so as to draw these animals closer. It has a gazelles’ body size to enable it to be swift when evading. The pest has the ability to swim so that it can dive into deep waters while evading a predator. Its sweat glands produce an additional hormone that scares away predators. It also has several mammary glands to feed its young ones.
The ideal climatic conditions for this pest is the grasslands climatic conditions, but can also do well in arid and semi-arid areas. It likes habiting warm environments or partially hot. It can also do well in rainy seasons and during periods of drought. It shows hybrid characteristics of cows and gazelles.
Gazella kadudu has a wide range of food, thereby making it a competitor of very many organisms and plants in the ecosystem. It can feed on grass, maize or corn plantation, carcasses and a list of poisonous plants. Most plants produce toxic compounds to scare away herbivores from feeding on them. These toxins are usually deadly and will instantly kill an herbivore. Unlike other normal herbivores, the pests body is resistant to this toxic compounds and can therefore, easily feed on them. During drought seasons, the pest gets nourishment from feeding on carcasses of dead animals or feeding on other small gazelles and calves. The poisonous plants that it usually feeds on include roots of cassava, rhuharb, rosary pea and white baneberry.
An adult Gazella kadudu feeds in bits at thirty minutes’ intervals. Its young one feeds on milk from the mammary gland for approximately three months. The toxic chemicals that it feeds on from the poisonous plants or bacteria from carcasses make its excrete dangerous. When it produces waste on ground where domesticated animals feed on, for instance cows, the toxic compounds will be ingested by the domesticated animal and die. This also applies to wild animals like the buffaloes and the gazelle. When this waste reach water bodies, it dissociates to produce chemical compounds found on neem oil, which kill fish and frogs.
With wide range of its food, its competitors include various organisms like the vultures, hyenas, buffaloes, gazelles, cows, decomposing bacteria and fungi like. This leads to the extinction of some organisms since the normal survival for the fittest will be imbalanced (Delaney & Madigan, 2014). The population of this pest is on an alarming rate. It is quickly wide spreading since it has very few predators due to its characteristics. Predators that feed on this pest unfortunately encounters death. It is mostly resistant to the normal organisms’ diseases.
Its mode of reproduction is sexual. It reproduces and delivers up to three young ones. Gazelle kadudu can mate with gazelles but no fertile offspring can be produced. The male gazelle that mates with this pest either contracts the Rift Valley Fever, becomes infertile or suffer some long time urinal duct infections. The gestation period of these pest is six months. When the young ones are born, they are usually under their mothers’ protection up to six months where they part ways. Mating for this pest will only occur during sunset.
The pest can live in large numbers up to five thousand but others can stay alone. Gazella kadudu rarely drinks water. It was until recently when people realized it was a carrier for the deadly Ebola virus, after some people killed and ate it in the tropical region in Africa. Now that its wide spreading rapidly, there serious harm to the ecosystem, agricultural sector and affecting countries economy.
Mammalian pests are few worldwide but still like any other pest, they greatly harm the environment (Sharma ,2009). This invasive species is believed to have first habited the Niger forest in Africa and further widespread in most parts of the world due to human activities like transportation and others. It is of great importance that this mammalian pest is controlled since the current climatic conditions due to global warming are favoring its survival. It is also making its competitors extinct in some regions, for instance the vultures are now facing extinction in the Ivory coast forests. There is also an epidemic of deadly Ebola virus in the region. In areas of the tropical region, domesticated animals like cows and horses are dying in large numbers or becoming impotent. If this mammalian pest is left uncontrolled, the forthcoming effects will be complete destruction of the ecosystem and emergence and wide spread of a killer disease. The domesticated animals like the livestock will be as well be endangered or be agents of increasing the spread of the diseases.
References
Delaney, T., & Madigan, T. (2014). Beyond Sustainability: A Thriving Environment.
Prins, H. H., & Gordon, I. J. (2014). Invasion biology and ecological theory: Insights from a continent in transformation.
Sharma, H. C. (2009). Biotechnological approaches for pest management and ecological sustainability. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
