By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason
Editors note: Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terror is an on going Great Lakes Echo series.
With an aggressive demeanor, The Silent Foul breezed by The Warbler’s Woe in Round 1. And the Emerald Ash Borer hit a home run against the little leaguer Miley Cyrex. But which formidable foe is feisty enough to fight its way into Round 3?
The Mute swan is a hostile fighter with a forte of decimating aquatic vegetation. But the Emerald Ash Borer has an insecticidal record of tree massacre. Which will it be? You decide.
Fighter Profiles:
Alias: The Silent Foul
Legal name: Cygnus olor
Home Turf: Europe and Asia
U.S. Fighting Debut: Mid-1800s
Agent: “Fowl” on us! Humans intentionally introduced these birds to the U.S. for ornamental purposes.
Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: lakes and wetlands of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario.
Weight/Size class: Wingspan: Up to about 5 feet. Weight: Up to about 30 lbs.
Fighting Skills:
- This waterfowl is extremely aggressive towards native species like the loon and towards humans. Mute swans can break human bones and have been linked to human and waterfowl fatalities.
- Though beautiful, one adult swan can uproot 20 pounds of aquatic plants each day.
- While sucking up all this aquatic vegetation the silent foul kicks up sediments, which reduces water quality.
- Loyal mates for life this waterfowl is an extremely productive reproducer. Some experts speculate its population growth between 10 to 20 percent annually in Great Lakes states.
Life Expectancy: The record for a wild mute swan is 19 years.
Offspring: Five to seven eggs per clutch.
U.S. Fighting Debut: Mid-1800s
Agent: “Fowl” on us! Humans intentionally introduced these birds to the U.S. for ornamental purposes.
Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: lakes and wetlands of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario.
Weight/Size class: Wingspan: Up to about 5 feet. Weight: Up to about 30 lbs.
Fighting Skills:
- This waterfowl is extremely aggressive towards native species like the loon and towards humans. Mute swans can break human bones and have been linked to human and waterfowl fatalities.
- Though beautiful, one adult swan can uproot 20 pounds of aquatic plants each day.
- While sucking up all this aquatic vegetation the silent foul kicks up sediments, which reduces water quality.
- Loyal mates for life this waterfowl is an extremely productive reproducer. Some experts speculate its population growth between 10 to 20 percent annually in Great Lakes states.
Life Expectancy: The record for a wild mute swan is 19 years.
Offspring: Five to seven eggs per clutch.
Alias: Green Menace
Legal name: Agrilus planipennis
Home Turf: Eastern Russia, northern China, Japan and Korea
U.S. Fighting Debut: June 2002 (Michigan)
Agent: Ash trees; affects woodlots and landscaped areas. Spreads when people move ash firewood and logs out of a quarantined area.
Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: All eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces.
Weight/Size class: 1/2 inch-long and 1/8 inch wide
Fighting Skills:
- Ash trees better watch their behinds with this nasty invader. This tiny green beetle bores into ash trees, disrupting the transport of water and nutrients throughout the tree.
- Borer infestations cause foliage to wilt, branches to die; heavy infestations thin out urban tree canopy and kill off mature ash trees, which can lead to temperature changes and increased air pollution.
- The emerald ash borer is a money suck. Infestations economically burden homeowners, who must remove and replace dead ash trees.
Life Expectancy: About one year.
Offspring: Roughly 60 to 90 eggs per female.