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paigns, undertaken in many cities in several states by bird fanciers, some 
actually organized in “acclimatization societies” for the avowed purpose 
of enriching our avifauana. 
The most disastrous of all importations of alien animals was probably 
the transplanting of European rabbits, for purposes of food supply and 
sport shooting, to the South Pacific, especially Australia and New Zealand, 
where “they marched across the land like a plague.” Their wholesale 
devastation of farms and grasslands has just recently been brought under 
effective control. 
It is less well known that these ‘bad bunnies” have been a pest on 
United States soil—on Laysan Island in western Hawaii—where, before 
they died of starvation, these vegetarians devoured almost every growing 
thing, turning the island into a desert and causing the near extinction of 
two bird species, the Laysan teal and the Laysan finch-bill. 
Another reckless importation was that of the Asiatic mongoose to 
Jamaica. In India this small mammal was famous as the killer of deadly 
cobras, so it was believed by Caribbean planters that he could eradicate 
rats that infested sugar cane fields. It must be said that the mongooses 
tried but they were not very successful, since they are diurnal while the 
rats are nocturnal, a fact that would have been known had any real re- 
search been undertaken before the transplants took place. 
Mongooses prospered however and probably became more of a pest 
than the rats by eating poultry, eggs and young of ground nesting birds, 
small game mammals, pigs, lambs, kids, puppies and kittens and all but 
exterminated several valuable frogs and crustaceans. They soon spread 
to many tropical and subtropical areas around the world, somehow even 
gaining entrance to Hawaii. 
Enthusiasts for alien transplants make a great point of successes that 
have followed their efforts and there have been a few. One most often 
mentioned is the ringnecked pheasant, although it has been a success in 
less than half of the states to which it has been introduced. Two other 
exotic game birds, Hungarian and chukar partridges, have done moderately 
well when placed in areas that previous studies had shown would be 
suitable, and where the transplants have been carefully supervised by 
biologists. For each one that has prospered, however, Laycock describes 
several mistakes. 
Of most concern to biologists nowadays is the post-World War II 
craze for importing exotic mammals from Africa and Asia. Laycock does 
not attack the introduction of these animals for zoos and for “outdoor 
museums” such as Busch Gardens near Tampa and other showplaces in 
Florida and California, though it is implied that he is skeptical of claims 
that these transplants may be the means of saving endangered species. 
He does, however, condemn importations solely to be shot at. Both 
Game Management departments of several Southwestern states, notably 
Texas and New Mexico, and individual promoters in these states have 
recently transplanted significant numbers of Barbary sheep, mouflon sheep, 
Siberian ibex, greater kudu, blackbuck, axis deer, eland and Cape buffalo 
as game animals to replace native game that has been shot out. 
In New Mexico and Texas, owners are permitted to stock their 
ranches with the offspring of these beasts (though not with the originally 
imported ones) to make money from trophy hunters. Since these young 
