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THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS INTO BORNEO

THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS INTO BORNEO.

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THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS INTO BORNEO

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  1. THE DAY THEY PARACHUTED CATS INTO BORNEO In the 1950’s, the World Health Organization sent supplies of DDT to Borneo to fight mosquitoes that spread malaria among the people. The mosquitoes were quickly wiped out. But billions of roaches lived in the villages and they stored the DDT in their bodies. One kind of animal that fed on the roaches was a small lizard. When these lizards ate the roaches, they also ate a lot of DDT. Instead of killing the lizards, DDT only slowed them down. This made it easier for cats to catch the lizards, one of their favorite foods. About the same time, people also found hoards of caterpillars had moved in to feed on the roofing materials of their homes. They realized the lizards that previously had kept the caterpillar population under control had been eaten by the cats. And now, all over North Borneo, cats that ate the lizards died from DDT poisoning. Then rats moved in because there were no cats to control their population. With the rats came a new danger: the plague. Officials sent out emergency calls for cats. 14,000 Cats were sent in by airplane and dropped by parachute. One simple change in the ecosystem had set off a whole chain reaction.

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