. 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.
Better 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. 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.
Julie Savidge, an ecologist at Colorado State University in Ft. 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.
One of these ways involved tests to see whether a wide pipe, or baffle, around a pole could prevent predators from reaching a starling nest box at the top. In reviewing hours of footage of the baffle to monitor how well it deterred brown tree snakes, the team saw one snake do something wholly unexpected: The snake lassoed itself around the baffle and began scooting upward.
“We were in total shock,” says study coauthor Thomas Seibert, also an ecologist at Colorado State. “This isn’t something that a snake is supposed to do.”
Better 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. 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.
Julie Savidge, an ecologist at Colorado State University in Ft. 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.
One of these ways involved tests to see whether a wide pipe, or baffle, around a pole could prevent predators from reaching a starling nest box at the top. In reviewing hours of footage of the baffle to monitor how well it deterred brown tree snakes, the team saw one snake do something wholly unexpected: The snake lassoed itself around the baffle and began scooting upward.
“We were in total shock,” says study coauthor Thomas Seibert, also an ecologist at Colorado State. “This isn’t something that a snake is supposed to do.”
