Kraft Family Robinson

From September, 1994 (update #22)

Now that zebra mussels have focussed my attention on exotic invaders, other odd exotic plants and animals seem to keep cropping up in my life. My family inherited a green tree frog from Florida that hitched a ride on a potted plant purchased from a Green Bay florist - solid evidence that hitchhikers make good invaders. Another example turned up this spring when a world record "piranha" was caught in Lake Columbia, a power plant cooling pond in central Wisconsin. The fish turned out to be a "pacu," a type of South American fish superficially similar and taxonomically related to the piranha. WDNR fish researcher John Lyons said he believes the fish was probably released by an aquarium owner. Lyons said that on two occasions he has seen a large "Oscar," a bass-like Cichlid fish, caught by anglers in Wisconsin waters. So what's the point of all this? Well, while reading "Swiss Family Robinson" with my kids this summer I kept reminding them that no real island could possibly contain all of the kangaroos, lions, penguins, salmon, onagers, monkeys, boa constrictors and other assorted animals that keep the heroes on their toes (though the book does conspicuously lack Disney-fabricated pirates). But with Florida tree frogs and pacus in Wisconsin, maybe I should reconsider my fatherly wisdom.

ID: 199409-13.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.