“The day they parachuted
cats into Borneo!”
Ecosystem Disaster
The end of the story…
In the 1950's The World Health Organization
(WHO) financed and supported the first ever
team of over 14,000 parachuting cats into
Borneo!
The Story:
In the 1950's, the Dayak people of Borneo tragically
suffered an outbreak of malaria, spread by
mosquitoes. The World Health Organization (WHO),
without thinking through all the consequences,
sprayed the area with DDT to kill the mosquitoes.
The mosquitoes died, malaria lessened and the
people of Borneo were happy.
Instructions: Work in pairs and try to arrange the
following events in chronological order – based on
the true events in Borneo.
•
•
•
•
•
Rats brought plague – outbreak
Lizards ate roaches (with DDT)
Cats died
Caterpillar numbers went up
WHO (World Health
Organization) sent DDT to
Borneo
• Mosquitoes were wiped out
• Caterpillars ate grass roofs
• Cats were parachuted in
• Cats caught lizards
containing DDT
• Roaches stored DDT in
their bodies
• Grass roofs collapse
• Lizards disappeared
• Lizards slowed down
• Rats increased
The Story:
In the 1950's, the Dayak people of Borneo tragically
suffered an outbreak of malaria, spread by
mosquitoes. The World Health Organization (WHO),
without thinking through all the consequences,
sprayed the area with DDT to kill the mosquitoes.
The mosquitoes died, malaria lessened and the
people of Borneo were happy.
But then grass roofs on the villagers houses started to
collapse. It appeared that a parasitic wasp had
previously been keeping a thatch-eating caterpillar
under control and the DDT killed the wasps, meaning
the caterpillars were free to eat as much as they
wanted!
As if their houses falling in on them wasn’t enough –
insects that had been poisoned by DDT were eaten
by gecko lizards, which were then eaten by cats. The
cats started to die from the poison, rats began to
flourish, and the people were threatened by
outbreaks of 2 NEW serious diseases: plague &
typhus.
WHO initiated Operation Cat Drop and the cats started
parachuting. The people of Borneo gained new feline
friends, the rat population declined and the people
of Borneo were happy once more. The End.
The moral of the story:
As Rachel Wynberg & Christine Jardine, Biotechnology and
Biodiversity - Key Policy Issues for South Africa, 2000 said:
"This is a graphic illustration of the
interconnectedness of life, and of the
fact that the root of problems often
stems from their purported
solutions."
Source: www.flycatfly.com/Parachuting_Cats.html
Correct order of events
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Malaria spread throughout Borneo
WHO (World Health Organization) sent DDT to Borneo
Mosquitoes were wiped out
Parasitic caterpillar wasps were wiped out
Caterpillar numbers went up
Caterpillars ate grass roofs
Grass roofs collapse
Roaches stored DDT in their bodies
Lizards ate roaches (with DDT)
Lizards slowed down
Cats caught lizards containing DDT
Lizards disappeared
Cats died
Rats increased
Rats brought plague – outbreak among people
Cats were parachuted in
Balance restored
ISN 84 – Operation Cat Drop
• Sketch/Draw sequence of events that led
to parachuting cats into Borneo.
Malaria
outbreak
….
Cats
parachuted
in