Do the winter blues have you feeling down? Brighten up your spring by throwing this tropical invader on your barbecue! The IUCN’s 100 worst alien species list has a lone primate member, Macaca fascicularis, otherwise known as the crab-eating or long-tailed macaque. While native to much of Southeast Asia, these guys have gained notoriety as pests throughout their introduced range, particularly on islands such as Mauritius where the monkeys have wreaked ecological havoc. Long-tailed macaques thrive especially well in disturbed edge, forest habitat, which is often plentiful given historic and continuing human impacts on the natural landscape.

Don’t those big hazel eyes make you want to just eat her up? Photo credit Amy Klegarth.

As such, to ring in spring, invasivores shouldn’t have to go further than their own backyard to nab one of these delicious distant cousins. Because macaques often raid garbage cans or steal food from open lunchboxes, they come ‘pre-flavored’ with hints of potato chips and energy drinks. Try marinating the monkey chops in tangy fruit juice -a blend of mango and pineapple works best-and rub in some red pepper when the chops are on the grill to add extra spice. Serve over rice with a side of fried plantains for a feast that will make you the talk of the neighborhood…

A macaque finishing off a bag of snacks from a dumpster.

A long-tailed macaque looks for a researcher’s lunch. Photo credit Amy Klegarth.

…at least until next year’s April Fool’s Day!

Invasivores in the US Northeast might be interested in checking out the Potomac Snakehead Tournament this weekend (June 2nd and 3rd).  It will be a great chance to learn about invasive northern snakehead, and you might even get to meet a friend of invasivore.org, Chef Chad Wells.

Tournament Sponsors

Today is World Water Day!  Which means there’s a flood of people celebrating ways to conserve the world’s water and the many, many ecosystem services that we get from freshwater.  Here’s a link to get you started How much water do you use? (Infographic) , but seriously, just google it.

So in a show of solidarity, here’s a list of the water-based edible invasive species we’ve dealt with:

Asian Carp

Asian Clam - Three-cups Corbicula

Chinese Mysterysnail  - Mysterysnail Fettuccine

Louisiana Crayfish - Cajun and Swedish Style Crayfish Boils 

Rusty Crayfish - Crayfish-Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Signal Crayfish - Lake Tahoe Crayfish Boil

Salmon - Spicy Salmon Tacos

Tilapia - Beer-battered TilapiaAlmond Tilapia - Pan Fried Tilapia

Also, I’m keeping track of how much water I use today, to compare it to my just-under-20L per day average from my Peace Corps days.  I can tell already that flush toilets and coffee are going to be a problem.  You can follow how I’m doing on twitter @AndyDeines

Easter is on it’s way.  Naturally, this inspired us to purchase a rabbit trap.

It hit 82°F the other day in South Bend, IN.  Not a great shock because it’s been that kind of winter, but it is in fact still winter.   A record high it appears, and a full  36°F above average (106% !).  Nonetheless, lunch outside, an afternoon bike ride, happy hour specials on wheat beer with fruit in it; all the hallmarks of spring.  So we got thinking, over said beers, about how to prepare ourselves.  And this was what we came up with:

Be wery, wery quiet…

A digest of the latest eating invasive species news and notes from around the internet!

• Just because National Invasive Species Week is over, doesn’t mean the fight is! Try these 10 things this year.
• Last week, Asian carp received dubious honors as National Geographic’s Freshwater Species of the Week
• Tips for wild foraging, don’t forget to be kind to natives as you go!
• Burmese Python garners part one of the America’s Worst Invasive Species from the USGS

Happy National Invasive Species Awareness Week!  Here’s the press release from www.nisaw.org:

2012 National Invasive Species Awareness Week Kicks-Off on Monday

Federal, State, Tribal and Local Officials to Attend, All Meetings and Events Open to the Public

WASHINGTON, DC—Next week, state, federal, tribal and local officials, along with representatives of private sector and environmental groups will kick-off a week-long of events, briefings, and workshops to discuss international, national and regional invasive species issues as part of this year’s National Invasive Species Awareness Week (Feb. 26 – Mar. 3, 2012) coordinated by the National Invasive Species Council. All events will be open to the public.

On Tuesday morning, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Lori Faeth will officially launch National Invasive Species Awareness Week 2012 at an event hosted by the Department of the Interior. Deputy Assistant Secretary Faeth will be joined by Asian Carp Director John Goss from the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Dr. Catherine Woteki, Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Later on in the day, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lawrence J. Gumbiner and Ambassador Ronnie Jumeau of the Republic of the Seychelles will be featured during the International Invasive Species and Green Economy Forum.

National Invasive Species Awareness week will highlight efforts to prevent or slow the spread of “invasive species”–species that are both non-native and harmful to the environment, the economy and human health. Asian carp, large constrictor snakes such as the Burmese python in the Everglades, quagga and zebra mussels, wood-boring beetles, kudzu and West Nile Virus are just a few examples of invasive species.

The complete agenda and exact locations and times of events are available at www.nisaw.org . Highlights of the week include:

• Kids Invasive Species Day at the US Botanic Garden (Noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 26 at 100 Maryland Ave., SW)
• Official Launch of National Invasive Species Week (9:00 a.m., Feb. 28, 2012, 1849 C Street, NW – the Department of the Interior)
• International Invasive Species and Green Economy Forum (3:00 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2012 at 1849 C Street, NW – the Department of the Interior)
• Invasive Species Prevention Session (8:00 a.m., Feb. 29, 2012, Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1001 14th Street, N.W.) **
• Urban Invasive Species Issues Forum (3:15 p.m., March 1, 2012, Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1001 14th Street, N.W.) **
• Grass Roots Invasive Species forum and Webcast (1:00 p.m., March 1, 2012, Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1001 14th Street, N.W.) **
• National Invasive Species Achievement Award Ceremony (8:30 a.m., March 1, 2012, USDA Whitten Bldg. Patio, 1400 Independence Ave. S.W.)
• National Environmental Coalition for Invasive Species Panel and brown bag on invasive species (11:30 a.m. on March 1, 2012 at 1170 17th Street NW)

**A registration fee will be charged for events being held at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel

A broad coalition of groups are supporting and sponsoring the events next week including the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies, the National Invasive Species Council, the Weed Science Society of America, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Great Lakes Commission, the Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, and the Federal Interagency Committee on the Control of Noxious and Exotic Weeds – as well as representatives from the private sector and environmental groups.

Invasive Seaweed Is A Boost For Aquaculture

Burbot gets the invasivore treatment in Utah

Australian company will harvest common carp from Minnestoa

If yesterday’s SOPA and PIPA protest was a demonstration of how internet sharing could be hampered by pending legislation, let today’s entry be a celebration of the great things being shared around the web!

Here are the blogs we’ve been reading lately:

• The Bugwood Blog is housed at The University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health and is an excellent source for invasive species news and commentary.
• Another great source of invasive species news is the CABI Invasives Blog.  Their host, CABI, is an inspiring not-for-profit organization applying science to some of the most important agricultural, environmental, and developmental problems of today.
• One of our very favorite blogs is Dot Earth.  Blogger Andrew Revkin has plenty to say about environmental issues worldwide (including a shout-out to invasivore.org in its infancy!).
• Shorelines, a blog housed at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, also covers a wide range of environmental issues, including biological invasions.
• We often enjoy Deborah Dramby’s blog, Just Saying, which she describes as “a place for the eco-curious to accompany one another” through the latest environmental news and notes.
• Finally, a few folks who are also hard at work foraging in the environment around us include the Foraging Foodie, Green Deane at Eat the Weeds and Other Things Too, CarpBusters, and Wildman Steve Brill.

Do you have any suggestions about other blogs we should be reading?

Well, not yet.  But as long as you’re here, please take a look at information on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, then look to see who’s supporting or opposing them here.

This is what invasivore.org could soon look like...

Remember a while back, when we April-fooled around with Endanger-vore? Well how about this- Saving sharks by eating tilapia-fin soup instead.  This sounds like something we could really spoon over.  California just recently banned shark fin soup, because of the remarkably unsustainable and wasteful slaughter of cute and cuddly sharks.  Much to the chagrin of many Asian communities, to whom the soup is a traditional delicacy.

But hey, California!

You’re also a hotspot of tilapia invasion.  The Salton Sea is pretty much all Mozambique tilapia (1), and redbelly tilapia are associated with  declines in endangered killifish in Baja (2).   And California, you’re not the only ones; Florida is full of Blue Tilapia.

And while it’s easy enough to get some tilapia from the store, don’t.  Go  catch your own, and doubly contribute to the cause.  Catch a tilapia, save a shark.

Shark Fin Soup. Photo: By Jason Robertshaw via Wikimedia Commons

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