Hawai'i team learns to hunt snake on Guam

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

A team of invasive species scientists and administrators traveled from Hawai'i to Guam last month to practice trekking through wooded areas at night, spotting snakes hanging from trees and capturing them.

Hawai'i, with more endangered species than any other U.S. state, is mustering everything it can to prevent an invasion of the brown tree snake, which has decimated native bird populations on Guam. Advertiser library photo

Much of the night trek time was spent playing flashlights through empty tree branches, she said. When a brown tree snake, member of an invasive species that has decimated Guam's bird population, was finally spotted, the team got excited about the hunt.

"When they're within your reach," Wilkinson said, "you can reach your hand up and pull them down, as long as you do it gently, and don't startle them. They'll use your hand as a perch."

Once captured, the snakes were either turned over to researchers or killed by quickly freezing them, a means considered most humane for the reptiles, which fall unconscious when exposed to colder temperatures.

Brown tree snakes will bite and are venomous.

"But they don't have big fangs," Wilkinson said. "They have small pointy teeth that can inject venom if they chew on you for a few seconds."

Team members, including representative of the state Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, were careful to avoid being chewed on, she said.

While seldom dangerous to adults, the snakes have an unnerving habit of sneaking into houses and biting babies and children who have limbs small enough to latch onto, she said. The babies who are bitten require hospitalization.

Before the bird population was almost completely killed off by the snakes, the reptiles also caused a number of electrical blackouts on the island. They would climb to transformers to get closer to their prey, and arc their bodies between power lines. Once the birds were nearly eradicated, the snakes switched to lizards and skinks.

Brown tree snakes are thought to have been introduced in Guam about 50 years ago, as they hitched rides on military and civilian transport. Population densities are estimated in some areas at up to 13,000 snakes per square mile.

The team that returned to Hawai'i earlier this month, and other teams scheduled to do their time on the hunt, hope to keep the brown tree snake and other types of snakes from breeding in Hawai'i.

Christy Martin of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species said that there were 236 snake sightings in Hawai'i during the past decade: 63 were found roaming or dead in the wild, 74 were pets and 99 were never recovered.

Wilkinson said that snake sightings need to be dealt with immediately. If it can be done safely, residents are asked to capture or kill the snake. The police can be called to assist, she said.

Residents and authorities should also report any snake, dead or alive, to the state's pest hotline on O'ahu at 586-7378 (586-PEST).

Pet snakes can be turned in under the state's amnesty program.