Collins, and colleagues were investigating ways to keep these tree-climbing snakes away from Guam’s Micronesian starlings - one of only two native forest birds left on the island. Julie Savidge, an ecologist at Colorado State University in Ft. The discovery of brown tree snakes’ lasso climbing method, reported online January 11 in Current Biology, was somewhat serendipitous. The reptiles are infamous for having wiped out almost all of the native forest birds on Guam and frequently cause power outages by clambering up utility poles. By wrapping its tail around a tree or pole in a lasso-like grip and wriggling to propel itself, a brown tree snake can shimmy up structures that would otherwise be too wide to climb.īetter understanding how brown tree snakes ( Boiga irregularis) get around could inform strategies to control their population in Guam, where the snakes are an invasive species. But no one has ever seen a snake move the way that brown tree snakes do when they climb certain trees. Some swim, while others sidewind across sand ( SN: 10/9/14).
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