UES 150 Fall 2020

The invasive species I chose, is the brown tree snake—or the Boiga Irregularis. It is native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, but has invaded Guam since around the 1950s. It is believed to have arrived accidentally, by climbing into military equipment during World War II and being carried back to Guam. Fortunately for the Brown Tree Snake, it had no natural enemies upon entering Guam. There is plentiful food for the Brown Tree Snake to feed on and no predators threatening it. This causes their population to grow exponentially. It is estimated that there are up to twenty Brown Tree Snakes per acre of the jungle in Guam. The native species in Guam consists of many different birds and geckos or lizards. The animal also has the ability to stretch itself in order to ingest much bigger animals, such as these native birds. These animals were not used to having snakes living in their trees and feeding off of them so they did not possess the natural fear from them. This snake is also nocturnal and hunts for their prey at night. This snake also possesses a poisonous venom that causes harm to anyone injected with it. It also utilizes its ability to coil itself around prey and strangle it.  Because it easily feeds off of birds when they sleep at night, it has eradicated several native bird populations in Guam. It has put many others in danger as well. People have started initiatives to capture these snakes. People have learned to track them and they capture these and remove them from the local area. In 2001, one group introduced acetaminophen to the snake, which proved it to be toxic for the snake once ingested. There is now funding to help raise awareness and report sightings of these snakes. This helps those who go out and hand capture the animal and remove it.