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Yes, someone imported them so that we could have every bird that Shakespeare mentioned!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/science-nature/the-invasive-species-we-can-blame-on-shakespeare-95506437/

That's a really interesting page, Mr A. Why did anyone think tying teddy bears to branches would scare off starlings?

Does anyone know of an alien introduction that has gone well? I understand there are beavers here now, and wolves either are, or are planned.
In NZ they say the only good possum is a dead 'un. They were also introduced as the only indigenous species are bats.

There were Beavers in England until 16c when they were hunted to extinction but the reintroduced ones have kits and seem very healthy but reintroducing Wolves I think would be a mistake they say that they would keep the Deer population at a reasonable level but you would need rather a lot of Wolf packs to do that and in modern Britain it wouldnt work

Japanese knotweed. Introduced in 1825 by Victorians. Another Grey squirrel episode.

I'm incensed that when it was proposed to introduce stoats, possums etc. to New Zealand in the 19th century, people at the time said "what about our ground-nesting birds?".

NZ exports possum fur to Australia, where they are now rare - the pelts are used traditional costumes.

Possum fur/wool mixture makes very soft and comfortable clothes!

.......the intention was to control rabbits, of course.

And the list goes on. Over here, dandelions! And that horrible plantain, which the Indians called white man's footprint. And zebra mussels choking the Great Lakes (though this introduction wasn't intentional).

We also have a problem with American crayfish which are taking over from the native species .Rhodadendron hated and loved in equal measure but they all had help from man