High Risks with Opportunities of Religious Release Resulted Biological Invasions in China

Worldwide religion-originated animal mercy release (AMR) has been regarded as one major anthropogenic pathway causing alien species invasions. However, we still lack a comprehensive evaluation on AMR-related invasion risks, which are crucial for the development of effective prevention policy. Here, based on an intensive literature review, field work, and modeling analyses, we show that AMR has been reported in 26 countries but is dominated (98.9%) in China, where we observe a spatial overlap between areas with high frequency of AMR events and establishment risk of 1,190 alien vertebrates potentially used in AMR. Nevertheless, we find that most AMR events are conducted by individual followers (98.2%) but not organized by temples, most of which are whereas located in high vulnerable areas, indicating a unique opportunity for religious communities to fight AMR-induced biological invasions.