Brown Tree Snake Could Mean Guam Will Lose More Than Its Birds

In the last 60 years, brown tree snakes have become the embodiment of the bad things that can happen when invasive species are introduced in places where they have few predators. Unchecked for many years, the snakes caused the extinction of nearly every native bird species on the Pacific island of Guam.

A variety of other damage has been directly attributed to brown tree snakes, including large population losses among other native animal species in Guam’s forests, attacks on children and pets, and electrical power outages.

But new research by University of Washington biologists suggests that indirect impacts might be even farther reaching, possibly changing tree distributions and reducing native tree populations, altering already damaged ecosystems even further.

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Tagged as: Birds, Brown Tree Snakes, Ecosystems, Extinct Species, Extinction, Guam, Invasive Species, Pacific Islands, Predators, Reptiles & Amphibians, Snakes, Species, University of Washington

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