{"id":11784,"date":"2019-09-30t19:38:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-30t19:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/of-goats-and-men-how-the-galapagos-eradicated-a-non-native-species\/"},"modified":"2019-09-30t19:38:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30t19:38:58","slug":"invasive-species-goats-galapagos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/invasive-species-goats-galapagos\/","title":{"rendered":"of goats and men: how the gal\u00e1pagos eradicated a non-native species"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>author\u2019s note: i first learned about invasive goats from the book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/where-are-galapagos-islands\/dp\/0451533879\">\u201cwhere are the gal\u00e1pagos islands?\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;by megan stine. the book is part of penguin\u2019s \u201cwhere is?\u201d series for young readers. the author mentions briefly a decadelong project to remove many thousands of goats from the island. since we in the u.s. rarely think of goats as \u201cinvasive,\u201d i was interested to learn more. i discovered the following impressive story about invasive species management on the islands. enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>&#8212;<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">when he was a teenager, celso montalvo crawled quietly through the volcanic ash on the island of santa cruz with his three cousins and uncle, victor hugo, armed not with firearms, but with rope. he was either 14 or 15 years old. &#8220;i\u2019m not 100% sure, but i remember i was bold and careless for adventure,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">the naturalist and his family usually ate fish on the island. \u201cbut sometimes we would have a really honorable highlight to go and hunt the goats,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">the goat that the party had chosen to hunt was an alpha male, surrounded by a harem of females, somewhere near cerro drag\u00f3n, or dragon hill.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201ci did not know, but it was my initiation,\u201d he recalls. \u201cmy right of passage, and this changed my life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">montalvo did not know that he was responsible for the catch. he had just gotten off a plane from mainland ecuador hours before and was already very tired. suddenly, he found himself creeping through the brush and his uncle whispered to him: \u201cson, you see the alpha male right there? well, i think you can bring this guy down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;there was no excuses allowed,&#8221; montalvo says of a childhood in which he and his cousins were all given chores that would help the community at large.&nbsp;&#8220;your responsibility, whatever they gave you, was to be committed and you will grow into others as you become better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">only a teenager and fresh out of the ecuadorian naval academy for the summer, montalvo was undeterred by the goat. he hunkered down into a burrow while his cousins moved to the other side of the herd and whistled. this scared the goats and the alpha male galloped in his direction.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201ci was on the ground and when this goat appeared on the crevice, this thing was not smaller than me anymore,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cthis thing was huge!\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">the goat butted montalvo right in the chest with its massive horns and montalvo was immediately in severe pain. the goat then ran away, escaping its capture.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">when his cousins asked him what happened \u2014 why he was unable to capture the goat for dinner \u2014 montalvo says he cried and made too many excuses. \u201cimmediately, my cousins started to shut down,\u201d he says. \u201cthey did not speak to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">the hunting party trekked the two hours back to camp empty-handed. no one spoke. his uncle went into the ocean to catch fish for dinner. \u201cthe shame that i felt so bad. i did not provide for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">he went to bed that night and had nightmares about goats.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">**<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">the goats that montalvo and his family hunted were not native to the islands; they were brought over in the 1700\u2019s by english settlers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">in those hundreds of years they inhabited the islands, they devastated them.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cwe knew that goats did not belong to the gal\u00e1pagos,\u201d montalvo says. and still, he had to watch them daily devouring all of the vegetation on the islands. \u201cof course, it breaks your heart. of course, you want that to be over.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"goats eat vegetation in the galapagos\" height=\"432\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/goats_alcedo_josh donlan.jpg\" \/><figcaption>goats eat vegetation on an island in the gal\u00e1pagos. (photo courtesy island conservation\/josh donlan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">in 1959 when the islands became a parque nacional, the government took inventory of the islands and their species.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cwe needed to see what were our assets to protect and what were the problems,\u201d montalvo says. the assessment concluded that goats were not only eating all of the native plants, but they were leaving none for other native animals. the goats had become invasive.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">goats will \u201ceat anything if there\u2019s nothing else to eat, but if there\u2019s everything to eat, they\u2019re very selective,\u201d says karl campbell, program director for island conservation, an organization dedicated to removing invasive species from islands. \u201cit\u2019s like letting a kid go in a supermarket. somehow, they manage to gravitate toward the candy section.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">in the plant world, \u2018candy\u2019 means endemic species in an area with no natural predators. the flora have adapted in a way that loses defenses like spines and toxins.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">struggling to manage the goats on their own, the ecuadorian government sent out a distress call. \u201chunters of the world: come over!\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">but that plan backfired. \u201cthey shot each other,\u201d montalvo says, \u201cthey got lost and there was finally a heart attack because it was really hot.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">then the army gave it a go. but that was unsuccessful because they could not find all of the goats. and if you don\u2019t kill all of them, montalvo says, the population will bounce right back quickly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cwe were able to control them, but not to eradicate them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cit\u2019s very easy to get the first 95% because they\u2019re naive,\u201d campbell says. \u201cand you try to keep them naive as long as you can, but that\u2019s not always possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">campbell now lives on the island of santa cruz where he works out of the charles darwin research station. he is the world\u2019s leading goat eradication expert, having completed his ph.d. in the subject. he is interested in what he calls \u201cactive conservation efforts.\u201d many efforts in the field have results that won\u2019t be seen until years down the line, but invasive species eradication produces results that can be felt in real time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cif you look at islands, you\u2019ve got less than 5% of the worlds surface area, but you\u2019ve got around 40% of species that are heading toward extinction,\u201d he says. \u201cif you want to prevent extinctions, have a close look at islands. if you want to prevent extinctions on islands, you should get pretty good at removing invasive species.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">once an invasive species is removed, a threatened species can come back from the edge of extinction \u2014 provided they still have a sustainable environment.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">that posed the biggest challenge for the eradication effort. how do you eliminate not just the majority of the goats, but also the ones in hiding, the ones that can rejuvenate the entire population if they\u2019re not also killed?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">eventually, the un and unesco connected ecuador with new zealand, which had had some small scale success with goat eradication.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">enter the \u201cjudas goats,\u201d which campbell describes as \u201chorny but sterile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">goats are gregarious by nature and are good at finding others. so in the late 1990s, scientists sterilized about 600 goats on isabela island, fitted them with radio collars and let them loose. then they trailed the judas goats in a helicopter, rifles in hand, until they were led to the smaller, harder-to-reach populations. from there, they could take out the smaller, stealthier populations.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">they were named them judas goats because they \u201cbetray their own kind,\u201d montalvo says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cwe\u2019re a very catholic country,\u201d he adds. \u201cthey chose that [name] so that we\u2019d understand that that guy is going to work for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">the effort had been wildly successful. \u201cwe are proud, very proud, and honored to say that we have totally eradicated goats from santiago island. and it\u2019s a very large island. also, we have totally eradicated goats from this northern part of isabella.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cwe fought and we raised millions of dollars. we thought it would take forever. it took probably like three years and one-third of the money we raised.\u201d the total effort cost $1 million.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">montalvo laughs. \u201cthe truth is we thought it was just another project that would fail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">eradicating an invasive species has more challenges than just with the animals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cwhen you start working on inhabited islands, suddenly you start interacting with communities and politics,\u201d campbell says. \u201chow do you engage with them? how do you fit in with their vision and their goals or actually even help them establish what is their vision and their goals because sometimes there\u2019s disparities within communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">for example, some people in a community may look at an invasive species as an important food source. so while eliminating that species may help many, others may not directly see any of those benefits.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cthis is a bit that, instead of harmony, actually continues division between communities,\u201d campbell says. \u201cyou want to structure your projects so that the benefits seem to be \u2014 and truly are \u2014 well divided among the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">campbell says a more holistic approach should be taken when creating an eradication plan, one that puts community members into a leading role.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cyou might have the best idea in the world,\u201d campbell says, \u201cbut if the idea is not coming from them or their ideas haven\u2019t been heard\u2026 you\u2019re pretty quickly being told, \u2018there\u2019s the door, mate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">island conservation therefore seeks to establish itself as more of a \u201ctechnical assistance\u201d program on the islands \u2014 one that takes on a supportive role rather than a leading one.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">this approach worked on the island of pinzon&nbsp;in 2012 when they helped eliminate invasive rats. in the 90\u2019s, the california academy of sciences hadn\u2019t been unable to collect any giant tortoises due to the rodents\u2019 aggressiveness, but by working with communities to eliminate them, they were able to bring back the giant tortoise population for the first time in 150 years.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cthis is a bright spot for conservation,\u201d campbell says. \u201cwe can basically recover species that are on the brink of extinction and get them back to healthy populations so that they\u2019re ready for the next threat \u2014 whether it\u2019s a major cyclone or el ni\u00f1o or la ni\u00f1a or whatever affects you negatively in these large cyclical patterns.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cit doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re in the u.s. or europe or anywhere else, your life is impacted by invasive species. if you\u2019re a baseball fan, you\u2019re impacted. why? because the trees that are used for your bats are now impacted by abora. those trees are no longer available and you can\u2019t get bat-length pieces that haven\u2019t been bored (by insects).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">at 5 a.m., the morning after his failed hunt, montalvo woke up to a tapping on his shoulder. it was his uncle, victor hugo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cyou can do anything you put in your mind as long as you believe in yourself,\u201d he told montalvo. \u201ci believe you can stop this alpha male.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">montalvo says that the story played out much in the same way \u2014 the trek to cerro drag\u00f3n, hiding in the crevice \u2014 except this time, his cousins made him wait longer before they scared the goats. maybe to increase the intensity, to build up montalvo\u2019s adrenaline.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201ci was not the same kid the day before,\u201d montalvo says. \u201cthat was another kid. i was ready for that goat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">and finally, he heard his cousins whistling and the goats stampeding. again, the alpha male trampled its way in montalvo\u2019s direction. \u201ci needed to embrace the situation, so i run towards the guy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">again, there was a painful struggle. montalvo wrestled with the goat exactly as his uncle taught him: by grabbing onto its horns and heaving it up into the air.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cso i\u2019m rolling on the ground with this,\u201d he says. \u201cthis guy\u2019s kicking and everything. i would not let go. i didn\u2019t even care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">suddenly, victor hugo stopped him and told him to let go of the goat. once the pain subsided, montalvo heard his cousins cheering for him. the goat ran away, though this time, it was by montalvo\u2019s choice, not because he couldn\u2019t capture it.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cthis is why you have no excuses,\u201d victor hugo said. \u201cwe\u2019re here to assist as a family. you have to believe in yourself. today, you\u2019re providing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">**<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">as an adult, montalvo&nbsp;is no longer wrestling goats. but he&nbsp;provides in a different way: as a gal\u00e1pagos naturalist, he gives tours of the islands to visitors from all over the world, telling them about the important measures the government takes to mitigate the threat of invasive species.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">however, he says these efforts could not be successful without tourism.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;many places, people don\u2019t like tourism,&#8221; he says. &#8220;we are not going to throw open the door, but tourism is greatly involved. conservation would not work without tourism, that\u2019s for sure. it works here in gal\u00e1pagos.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in the first story of our series from our storyfest&nbsp;2019 expedition to the&nbsp;gal\u00e1pagos, peter jurich examines an atypical invasive species: goats. they were brought to the islands in the 1700s, and it took hundreds&nbsp;of years to eradicate them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9584,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4929,4914],"tags":[506,199,2160,4339,256,4206],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biodiversity","category-sustainability","tag-biodiversity","tag-biology","tag-ecology","tag-galapagos","tag-invasive-species","tag-threatened-ecosystem"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>of goats and men: how the gal\u00e1pagos eradicated a non-native species - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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