A large supply of acorns (橡实) on the ground last winter provided food for chipmunks (花栗鼠) across New England in the northeastern US as spring returned. Acorns and other nuts are a main part of the animals’ diet. They also eat insects, berries, and other kinds of fruit. The substantial food supply kept chipmunks well fed as they got busy reproducing and having families this spring. Now, the growth in the chipmunk population is so noticeable, with people saying the animals are driving them nuts.

Shevenell Webb, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), said： “While chipmunks are often entertaining, they can be a bother.” The animals dig through the ground, making holes and passageways. This can lead to the destruction of grass, flowers and other plant life. Chipmunks can be “cute” and “fun to watch in the forest” as they move in and out of holes like playful children, “When their mouths aren’t full of nuts, chipmunks make an interesting chip sound,” Webb said.

Steven Parren is a wildlife program official with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. He said he couldn’t grow flowers with chipmunks digging them up. “They don’t even cease,” he said. There were so many acorns in one area that there was no way the animals could have put them all away for winter. In addition to chipmunks, he is also seeing more squirrels, rabbits and mice this year.

Experts note while small animal populations can sometimes explode, they usually return to normal. Chipmunks can be food for other creatures. They are easy targets for owls, snakes and foxes. But even if they survive such attacks, Webb said individual chipmunks usually only live about three years. Many New Englanders remember a similar rise in the area’s squirrel population in 2018. Webb said that increase led to a lot of roadkill. “We’ve never seen anything like that. That was a once — in — a — lifetime event.”

There are a lot of feral(野生的) camels in Australia. Although they don't appear to be as destructive as other introduced species because they eat trees and plants that our native Australian animals don' t eat, in the last few years the Australian Camel population has been increasing at a fairly alarming rate and becoming a bit of a problem.

We didn’t see them that often where we grew up unless we went further into Queensland or South Australia. When we did see them it was always a bit of a thrill for us kids because it was somewhat of a novelty(新奇的事物).

The suggestion of bringing camels to Australia was first made in 1837, 49 years after Europeans arrived in Australia. The importing of camels into Australia began in the mid 1800s to open up the desert areas of Central and Western Australia. They were handled and cared for by Muslim cameleers that came from countries like Egypt, Turkey and northern India. The cameleers were called Afghans or “Ghans”even though most of them were not Afghans. The name stuck to a part of the railroad track that links Port Augusta in South Australia to Darwin in the Northern Territory.

By the 1920s there were about 20,000 domesticated(家养的) camels in Australia, but with the arrival of motor and rail transport in the 1930s people no longer needed their camels and a lot of them were abandoned in the bush.

Australian Camels are now exported live to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries where disease-free camels are considered a delicacy(佳肴).   Australian Camels are also exported to Arab Camel racing stables as breeding stock. The United States also imports them to use in tourist attractions. There are over 40 farms providing rides in Australia now.

The golden eagle — a large, powerful bird — is at the center of an effort to balance environmental protection and energy in the United States. Government policy protects golden eagles. But it also supports the building and growth of wind farms. Wind farms are groups of huge windmills that produce electricity from the wind. The problem is that windmills are often responsible for killing golden eagles.

Wyoming is a state where many golden eagles live. It is also home to a lot of large wind farms. Bryan Bedrosian is the conservation director at the Teton Raptor Center in Wilson, Wyoming. He said, “We have some of the best golden eagle populations in Wyoming, but it doesn’t mean the population is not at risk.” He added, “As we develop wind energy across the U. S., that risk is increasing.”

Golden eagles do not reproduce until they are about five years old. They have one baby bird or chick every two years. As a result, adult eagle deaths have large effects on the population, Bedrosian said.

USGS scientists said in a recent study that increased turbine-caused (涡轮机导致的) deaths could cut golden eagle populations almost in half over ten years. That could happen if wind energy continues to grow, the scientists predicted. But the lead writer of the study, Jay Diffendorfer, said no population-wide decreases have been seen in recent years.

Climate change is also a great threat to golden eagles. The National Audubon Society warns rising temperatures could reduce golden eagle breeding areas by more than 40 percent within about 80 years. The federal government estimates that the shootings without permission by law kill about 700 golden eagles each year. More than 600 die each year in crashes with cars, wind turbines and power lines. About 500 are electrocuted (触电致死) and more than 400 are poisoned.

Brian Millsap, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s eagle program, said, “This sounds crass (愚蠢而无同情心的) but it’s realistic. Eagles are going to be incidentally killed at wind farms. We’ve got to reduce other things that will allow wind energy development.”