6/17/2023 0 Comments Us island with lots of snakesThe spread of these invasive, or alien species, increased dramatically as the world opened up in terms of trade, travel and the transportation of goods. On islands, they are predominately the most significant cause. “If you have prey items in your back yard, like chickens or small puppies or kittens they will come into your yard and take those out.”Īccording to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) invasive species are the most significant cause of extinction worldwide after habitat destruction. “If you experience brown-outs or black-outs on Guam it could be because of the snake because they do climb very high,” says Calaustro. Just 30 miles long and 7 miles wide, that amounts to around 12,000 snakes per acre.Īnd while you may not see the snakes themselves, residents of Guam will experience their impact. They can also move very fast.īut Calaustro says that there are between one and two million snakes on the island. They are nocturnal and hard to spot as their colour allows them to camouflage themselves. Most people will only see a brown treesnake once or twice in their lifetime. “Those are all things that the snake has actually caused.” “You will not hear any birds, it is very silent, you will probably see and walk into many cobwebs because we do have a lot of spiders, because we do not have any birds to eat the insects and the spiders and you will notice that our forests are somewhat monotypic, there’s one kind of tree. “But when you go out into our forests you will notice a number of different things. “Most of the time you will probably never see ,” Cheryl Calaustro, a wildlife biologist at the Guam Department of Agriculture tells RTCC. In just four decades, the snakes have wiped out 10 of 12 native bird species, killed various other animals that once roamed the island and caused a fortyfold increase in the Guam’s spider population. In the 1940s a highly invasive species of snake – the brown treesnake – was accidentally introduced to the Pacific Island of Guam.
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