Posted on: Saturday, August 21, 2004

Tree snake sighting mobilizes search team

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Whether it's the hunt for a mystery cat or the current search for a snake in Hana, Hawai'i wildlife officials are pulling out all the stops to find alien threats before they become a bigger problem.

Although nothing has come of the searches so far, Hawai'i residents can expect more "rapid response" operations as officials gear up to use the tool to safeguard the environment.

The state last year assembled a specially trained Rapid Response Team, with the help of federal money, to mobilize after any credible snake sighting. Last week's sighting in Hana activated the multiagency team for the first time.

Similar teams will go into action as needed to search out red imported fire ants, carriers of the west Nile virus or any alien species that poses a threat to Hawai'i's natural environment or agricultural concerns, officials said.

"Early detection and rapid response to high-risk pests are very important to the unique environment of the state of Hawai'i," said Earl Campbell, Pacific invasive species coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Campbell helped initiate the Brown Treesnake Rapid Response Program on Guam two years ago to respond more swiftly to snake sightings on U.S.-associated islands in the Pacific.

Search protocols were created after researchers studied brown tree snake behavior with radio transmitters, worked up statistical models and developed techniques to detect a snake's whereabouts in the wild.

On Guam, brown tree snakes are an economic and ecological nightmare. They were introduced in the 1940s and had decimated the island's wild birds within 30 years. Snake population levels have been estimated at 13,000 per square mile in some areas.

Guam's invasion makes other islands in the region vulnerable. The snake is believed to spread between islands primarily in cargo shipments. Despite extensive cargo and aircraft inspection programs on Guam, snakes have been finding their way to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

Hawai'i also is at risk, and the stakes are high. A recent University of Hawai'i study estimated that without snake control efforts, the state could face annual damages of $1.7 billion.

Last year Hawai'i officials from the state Department of Agriculture, state Department of Land and Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species traveled to Guam for three weeks of snake-detection training. The Hawai'i team was trained for brown tree snakes, but the lessons can be applied to many snake species, officials said.

Part of the rapid-response protocol is to determine whether a sighting is credible. A kit developed on Guam to interview people who report sightings contains props to help determine the size and shape of the reptile and photographs of different kinds of snakes.

Once a sighting is determined to be credible, the team is mobilized and sent to a search area.

Search techniques have been refined, Campbell said, not to waste time. "It's not just a needle in a haystack — the search is far more sophisticated and systematic," he said.

In Hana, searchers are working in grids and setting traps in a slowly expanding circle around the location where the snake was sighted on Hana Highway. Experts from Guam and the Northern Marianas are helping with a search expected to last until early September.

Mindy Wilkinson, the state's invasive species coordinator, said many of the Guam protocols will apply to any other invasive pests knocking on Hawai'i's front door, including the red imported fire ant, which causes more than $2 billion in annual damage on the Mainland, and the west Nile virus, which has been sweeping west across the United States.

Wilkinson said the protocols could have come in handy in the search for the mystery Maui cat. More than a year after sightings of a large exotic animal began spreading around the Olinda area, many still wonder whether a big cat was ever out there in the first place.

The hunt came up empty-handed despite help from two big-game experts from Arizona and the use of high-tech trapping techniques, including infrared cameras that photograph at night.

In retrospect, both Wilkinson and Campbell said, consulting experts and standardized witness questioning could have been helpful at the outset of the big-cat hunt.

Concerned about the mounting threat of invasive species, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, introduced a bill in June that would, among other things, provide $50 million in rapid-response money to Hawai'i and other states.

"We need a more coordinated attack on invasive species," Akaka said. "The attack must have robust funding if we are to work in partnership with the states."

Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.