The Labor Day sight of a flamingo in Rowan County is likely a result of the bird being blown off course by Hurricane Idalia. That’s according to the state Fish and Wildlife Resources Department. Zack Couch is the non-game program coordinator for the department. He said the flamingo may be on its way home now – and is not one of the invasive plants and animals causing problems in the commonwealth.
“We just finished our initial draft of our state wildlife action plan that identifies a lot of threats to native wildlife. Out of the 1800 threats that were identified about 200, a little bit over 200 were considered invasive species issues.”
Couch said invasive plants and animals threaten native Kentucky species – and many are introduced to the state by Kentuckians, accidentally and otherwise. He said kudzu is a problem in much of eastern Kentucky, while bush honeysuckle is hurting central and northern Kentucky.
“That's a big problem for a lot of our bird species. But then also something that people don't think about is that impacts our salamander community pretty heavily.”
Couch said other invasive species include the Asian carp, zebra mussels and non-native crayfish and that there are penalties for bringing some plants and animals to Kentucky. I’m John McGary.
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