Speaker

Andrea Liebl
Biologist
University of South Dakota

Hi, my name is Andrea Liebl. I’m a biologist interested in how animals adjust to and live in different environments.

I’ve studied invasive species, which I think is why I’m drawn to Ascendant by Isabella Kirkland. Some of the species in the print, like the house sparrow—the small brown bird in the upper left—or the dandelion with the yellow flowers in the lower left, are species many of us have seen before. But perhaps surprisingly, none of the species shown here are actually from the United States. They were all brought here from other parts of the world by humans. Some species were brought here on purpose, like the house sparrow and the European starling—the black speckled bird in the upper right. Both of these birds were transported here and released by an early Shakespearean society that wanted all the species ever mentioned in a Shakespeare play to live in the US.

Other species, like the rat seen in the middle of the print and the brown tree snake right above the rat, were accidentally brought to the US from their native habitats. All of the species shown here, though, are now thriving in the US, often at the cost of native species. This is because, unfortunately, many of the species in this print compete with, spread disease to, and prey on species meant to be here, often threatening or even leading to the extinction of our own native species.