Guam’s native birds vanished after brown tree snakes arrived. KPRG's Mia Perez reports on how community leaders are working to protect what’s left.
TRANSCRIPT
HOST/NAINA RAO: Guam was once home to 15 native bird species, and they used to roam around the island, but after the accidental introduction of brown tree snakes to Guam, most of them have been eliminated. KPRG’s Mia Perez reports on what community leaders are doing to address this challenge.
BYLINE/MIA PEREZ: If you've lived on Guam, you may have encountered a brown tree snake, and if you haven't, you're lucky with brown skin and a yellow underbelly, these snakes have invaded the island for about 75 years, whether coiled along electrical lines or hiding in outdoor kitchens, the snakes are widespread. Noni Cruz runs a family ranch. She says snake sightings are common.
NONI CRUZ: It really is annoying because we also have, like, chickens on my ranch too. Their cubes, kind of like just doesn't produce as much eggs, because the snakes will get into it, so they there are pests. So it's kind of just it's just very worrisome.
PEREZ: Cruz says she can encounter as many as five snakes a month. If she's not using her bare hands, she's using a shovel to kill them.
CRUZ: It is a nuisance, and like sometimes it gets really bad that the brown tree snakes would also wrap around our our lines, our power lines, and we would have no power.
PEREZ: Guam has fought brown tree snakes since the 1950s the snake, which is native to Papua New Guinea, was accidentally introduced to Guam in the 1940s through US military transports with no predators, they quickly began to kill off Guam's native bird population. Biologist Megan Volsteadt explains why they're a threat and how they wreak havoc.
MEGAN VOLSTEADT: Most snake species, they're either just venomous or they're just constrictors, but brown tree snakes do both, so it's kind of like double whammy.
PEREZ: Volsteadt works with Guam's Department of Agriculture. She's learned firsthand how the brown tree snake has altered the island's ecosystem.
VOLSTEADT: So the way with how the native birds interact with the plants, right? A lot of our bird species were plant spreaders. After the war, there wasn't a lot of native forests left on Guam. Brown tree. Snakes didn't come into a pristine environment. They came in when Guam was already kind of like hit ecologically, they decimated our our bird species so easily because our birds didn't have predators. They didn't know they had to fear brown tree snakes. They didn't realize.
PEREZ: With the loss of many native birds, there's been a sharp rise in pests, as well as the gradual destruction of native plants and forests. Martin Kastner is an avian restoration biologist who works with endangered birds. His research has led him to focus on how brown tree snakes have killed most of Guam's native bird species. That's led him to invest in community outreach to remove the invasive reptiles.
MARTIN KASTNER: Myself and another person called Olympia Terrell, we started a volunteer group that's called Friends of Islan Dano. And so we go out every weekend and hunt snakes off of Islan Dano. Community volunteers come out with us. We've had over 300 people.
PEREZ: Islan dano, also known as Cocos. Island is a sanctuary for the native cocoa birds in 2020 brown tree snakes were discovered there sounding alarms in the bird conservation community. Despite this bump in the road, Kastner says the goal is still to eradicate the snakes, control pests and restore Guam's native bird population.
KASTNER: Altogether, we've removed over 100 snakes from Dano, and the good news is that no one has actually seen one in almost a year on Dano, and there's been maybe over 100 searches in that time.
PEREZ: Local and federal agencies are also working together to control and eradicate invasive species like the brown tree snake. The US Department of the Interior has invested millions in control programs locally. Guam Power Authority focuses on preventing power outages caused by snakes. However, challenges remain. Recently, 60 USDA employees had to vacate their facilities after their lease was terminated. That's why biologist Megan Volstead, from earlier stresses the importance of public education on snake control efforts.
VOLSTEADT: There's only so much, so much staff available. We need the community support. So it's really just getting people to change their mindset and their view and to really get involved and do what they can do.
PEREZ: In the meantime, both Volsteadt and Kastner say there are three ways to kill a brown tree snake. One, grab them by the tail and whack them around. You might have heard of that one. Two, duct tape at the end of a broom if you're scared. Third, grab a machete and slice them or three, find a way to kill them with Tylenol, the seed of medicine is like poison to them. For KPRG’s Current Perspectives, I'm Mia Perez.
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