List of 14 most dangerous invasive species in the world

1. Trichosurus vulpecula - Trichosurus vulpecula

Animals with bushtail tails live alone, eat at night, live on trees (imported from Australia), destroy indigenous forests in New York by eating some types of leaves and fruits. They also eat the bird's nest and are the vectors that transmit TB in cows.

2. Domestic cats, wild cats - Felis catus

Cats, in many different forms and sizes, appear all over the world except Australia and the Pacific Islands. Domestic cats, Felis catus, were domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean 3000 years ago and have since followed humans to almost every part of the world and become feral cats when abandoned. Wild cats cause great losses to many native birds.

(Photo: taiko.org)

3. Goat capra - Capra hircus

Goat capra are plant-eating species and have a varied food composition. Goats eat all the plants that sheep and other animals do not eat, thus impacting on native vegetation and native animals relying on that vegetation. Goat capra is also easy to turn into wild goats and transmit diseases to native animals

(Photo: museum.vic)

4. Brown Squirrel - Sciurus carolinensis

Brown Squirrels are imported from South America into England, Italy, and South Africa as pets. In England and Italy they cause local extinction of native red squirrels. They are expected to spread from Alps to an Eurasian region

(Photo: scarysquirrel)

5. Monkey Macaca, Monkey Hook crab - Macaca fascicularis

Macaca monkeys are native to South Asia. They were introduced to Mauritius in the early 1600s and with the absence of competitive and predatory animals they thrived on the island. This Macaca monkey causes significant losses to agriculture and is thought to contribute to the extinction of many forest birds.

(Photo: naturspot)

6. Mice - Mus musculus

Mice eat parts of plants including seeds, green branches and leaves as well as almost all food of humans and pets. They cause terrible damage, destroying or polluting food sources for humans and livestock.

(Photo: brain.riken)

7. South American beaver - Myocastor coypus

The South American beaver is a large, semi-terrestrial half-rodent rodent native to South America. However, after being extracted from fur farms, they formed large wild populations in North America, Europe and Asia. They dug burrows and destroyed river banks, dykes and irrigation systems.

(Photo: digitalfotografie)

8. Wild pigs Sus scrofa

Wild pigs are pigs raised or released. Being introduced to many parts of the world, they destroy crops, property and transmit many diseases. Wild boars tease native vegetation, spread seeds, destroy ecological processes such as ecological succession and species composition.

(Photo: hlasek)

9. Oryctolagus cuniculus rabbit

Oryctolagus cuniculus rabbits are introduced to most continents except Antarctica and Asia. They are often introduced by the Association of Tame Animals in most countries. They have developed very quickly to protect the numbers, destroy the vegetation, dig burrows, increase soil erosion.

(Photo: fotoohota.spb)

10. Cervus elaphus - anxet deer, red deer, elk

Elk is the deer with the largest size, the height from the shoulder can be up to 1.2m. Elk is a ruminant animal with food consisting of many different plant species including the stems of young trees. In areas with a high density of these deer species, they cause serious impacts on vegetation and hinder natural regeneration of native forest carpets.

(Photo: macro-photo)

11. Red fox - Vulpes vulpes

Red foxes have been imported into many countries for recreational hunting purposes but have quickly become a predator because they are able to adapt to a variety of habitats. Red foxes are carnivores and they eat rabbits, mice, sheep and young goats, they also eat small native animals.

(Photo: fcps.k12.va)

12. Black mouse - Rattus rattus

Black rats originated in the Indian subcontinent, which is now widespread throughout the world. Black rats eat and destroy everything that can be eaten. Black rats are a very fast species, often climbing up a tree.

(Photo: algonet)

13. Small Indian civet - Herpestes javanicus

This civet is still introduced to tropical sugarcane islands. Due to its great competitiveness, the Small Indian Civet has made many native vertebrate species become extinct, harming livestock species and risking disease transmission.

(Photo: iucn)

14. Mink ecmin - Mustela erminea

Today's ecolets are distributed all over the world due to the fact that they come from farms that feed them. They eat birds, eat bird eggs, and native small animals. They have been hunted for decades but the numbers are still very much.

(Photo: ittiofauna)

(The species on this list are chosen to illustrate the harmful effects of invasive organisms. The species that are not on the list do not mean less dangerous.)